


This Bond Between Us (Can't Be Broken)

by ClaPan62



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Child Abuse, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Growing Up Together, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, M/M, Multi, My First AO3 Post, My First Work in This Fandom, My first FanFic here, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, They are all kids, They grow up eventually, Trini's Last Name is Not Kwan, english is not my first language, eventual trimberly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2018-12-29 18:25:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12090813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClaPan62/pseuds/ClaPan62
Summary: Trini was a silent little sad mysterious thing, Kimberly was a protective little bubbly thing who never learned about personal space, Billy was a brilliant angel with too many knowledge, Jason was a friendly little sweet thing, Zack had too much energy and loved to climb and Tommy came along later on but fit right in with her sassy smirkOrIt all started when they were 5 years old.





	1. First Days And New Friends (Also A Few Less Than Friends)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys!
> 
> So, I don't even know where this came from. I haven't written anything in a while, never posted anything here and this is my first time attempting writing Power Rangers, even though this is completely AU. So is safe to say I'm more than a little nervous.
> 
> Keep in mind that English is not my first language and I don't have a Beta. 
> 
> I also have no idea where this is going, so feel free to give me ideas and opinions.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it ;)

It all started when they were 5 years old.

Kimberly Hart was contently playing around the playground with her new friends – and Jason Scott, the son of her Mommy’s best friend whom she had known since birth. It was their first day of school – Kimberly’s Mommy made her a special breakfast while her Daddy made sure he could come into work later today so he could come along to drop her off – and, so far, she had loved every second of it. The teacher was nice and gentle (and so pretty, that goof looking kid, Zack Taylor had added in a not so whispered voice to a blushing Jason), the other children weren’t so bad either (maybe, perhaps, a little too loud and wild and made that Billy Cranston kid to cringe from time to time, but he seemed very content sitting by the book case, going through books in such a speed that couldn’t be considered normal for a 5 year old) and, overall, little Kimberly had no complains whatsoever.

That lasted until recess time – she had been just so happy after eating her Mommy’s special lunch for her and trading a few of her golden fish with one of Jason’s chocolate chip cookie – and was really excited to play in the big play structure she had spotted on the playground. And she had a good time for the first few minutes, running up and down with Jason, that Zack kid and a girl named Amanda Clark. Until the older kids, first and second graders – including her older brother Josh and his best friends – came along to play.

Josh came over, a couple of his best friends tagging along, made sure she was doing okay on her first day (because his parents had told him he had to be a ‘good older brother and make sure his little sister was okay’) and soon departed to somewhere else, too cool to hang out with his little sister and her newfound friends. It was only a few minutes after he left that Kimberly noticed a suspicious locomotion on the far corner of the playground, a place hidden from the eyes of the teachers and any adult that may be around watching them.

Being the curious little thing her family always accused her to be – she wasn’t – Kimberly quietly sneaked away from the other three to find out what was happening, frowning slightly when she realized that 5 older kids, none of whom she recognized, so she assumed they were either first graders or from the second grade that wasn’t her brother’s, were gathering around the tinniest girl from her class – the deadly quiet one that hadn’t really interacted with anyone through the day. Kimberly frowned deeper, trying to remember the girl’s name but no matter how hard she tried, she came up empty.

She looked a little closer, confusion and anger building inside of her when she noticed that the girl, backed up against a wall with wide eyes and fear reflected in them, had tears streaming down her face. And the kids – bullies, Kimberly remembered Josh warning her against them – kept laughing at her, pointing and calling her names like ‘weird’, ‘freak’ and ‘crybaby’.

She didn’t think twice before she shoved the closest boy out of the way, only strong enough to make him stumble a couple steps back, and stood protectively in front of the girl, her tiny hands clenched into tight fists and her face slightly red with anger.

“Leave her alone!” She screamed as loud as her lungs allowed her, her face hard and the only emotion showing was anger. The older kids looked taken back for a second, clearly not having seen it coming, but seemed to recover rather fast, the brunette boy with blue eyes standing right in front of her – hovering over her, really – smirking with an amused look on his features. 

“Or what? What are you going to do?” He mocked and Kimberly froze for a second, her confidence lowering by the moment. She looked around and then straightened her shoulders, looking up at the boy with no trace of fear in her face.

“I’ll tell on you to the teacher!” The kids began to laugh loudly once again, successfully dropping Kimberly’s confidence considerably.

“Oh, you will? And then what, you’ll go running crying to you Mommy, baby girl?” Another boy mocked her and she struggled to come with something to say back. Turns out she didn’t have to anyway, because the next thing she knew, someone else was by her side.

“You better hope she doesn’t” Jason said in such a sudden but calm voice that scared Kimberly “I mean, her Dad being a cop and all”

“Oh, really?” The brunette boy looked amused, even if a little taken aback by the other sudden appearance. “And what will he do, arrest me?”

“He might” Another voice came from behind the group of bullies and this one, made all of them freeze on spot “Or I might just kick your butt for bulling my sister and her friends”

“Josh” The same boy that, only a second ago was mocking her and looking so confident, now looked like he might pee on his pants. Kimberly smirked when everybody turned around to face Josh and his friends, all looking very unimpressed, arms crossed above their chests.

“Yeah, so, here’s the thing, unless you want to have a problem with us” Josh pointed around himself to his friends “I better never get you anywhere near my sister or her friends again, deal?”

Kimberly, Jason and Zack – when did he even get there? – watched in amusement as the kids struggled with their words, pretty much running away while tripping on their own feet while Josh and his friends also watched with smirks on their face. Then Josh’s gaze lowered to her and he raised a brow. 

“I thought you would wait until at least your second day to get in trouble” Kim shrugged and Josh turned on his heels, shaking his head with an amused look on his face while murmuring something about her not getting in trouble for – at least – the rest of the day.

“Hey, are you okay...?” Zack’s voice brought her attention back to the almost forgotten – and still deadly quiet – girl behind her. She frowned, watching as the tiny girl looked at Zack with wide eyes and pressed herself further against the wall behind her.

“Hey, it’s okay, we won’t hurt you” Jason said calmly, that always present smile on his face that always made everyone like him – kids and adults. The girl still said nothing, didn’t even relax the slightest and lowered her gaze to the ground. “I’m Jason and this are Zack and Kimberly” Still, the girl said nothing and Kimberly’s frown had turned slightly angry.

They had saved this girl from mean bullies and she wasn’t even going to talk to them? Rude!

“Her name’s Trinity” Kimberly, along with Zack and Jason jumped, eyes snapping to Billy Cranston, who had came from apparently nowhere. He was looking to where the girl – Trinity, apparently – was still silently standing and cracked his neck, dropping his head to the side slightly “I don’t think she can talk… Or maybe she can talk but she doesn’t like it. Like I don’t like when people touch me – most of the time. My Mom says its fine if I want them too though, but only if I want to. My Dad says if I don’t want people to touch me and they touch me anyways it’s not okay and…”

“Ah… Thanks, Billy? Is it Billy?” Jason cut him off, although not unkindly and Billy didn’t really seem offended. He only smiled bigger and nodded.

“Yes, Billy Cranston…. Well, not really is actually William Cranston, but only my Mom and Dad call me that when they are angry… Oh, and my grandma calls me that to, I don’t really know why since everyone else calls me Billy and…”

“I like your name” Kimberly smiled, once again interrupting the boy who, once again didn’t seem fazed. Then, Kimberly’s eyes travelled back to the tiny girl, who was currently wiping the tear tracks from her face with her long sleeves and pecking up at them with the corner of her eyes until she met Kimberly’s gaze. Then her eyes went back to her feet immediately “So… She can’t talk?”

“I think she can” Billy said, a thoughtful look on his face “I mean, I’m almost sure I must have heard her talking at one point or another but I can’t really remember” Zack, to Kimberly’s left, looked a little taken aback at Billy talking, like he had never seen someone who was not an adult talking like that. He probably didn’t. “… She’s my neighbor. Well, not really, I mean… She lives in my neighborhood, the last house down the street, I think? Not a very nice house to be honest but… Anyway, we always see each other at the neighborhood’s parties and stuff and the other kids are always saying mean things about other kids – myself included – and I’ve heard a few times them mentioning that she doesn’t speak” 

“Oh” Kimberly was also a little taken aback but she shrugged that and took one step ahead, closer to the girl and, deciding against trying to make her look up, she simply crouched down – the same way her brother would do to talk to her whenever she was upset and refusing to look up to him – and looked up to sad brown eyes. She smiled when the girl didn’t try to look away. “Hey there. Trinity is it?”

It took a few seconds, Kimberly could see the hesitant look on her face and the brown eyes studying her. Finally, the girl bit her bottom lip and slowly nodded. Kimberly’s smile widened.

“I like your name, but do you have a nickname? Mine’s Kim… Or Kimmy, everybody calls me Kim really” Trinity remained silent. Then again, slowly, she shook her head and visibly flinched when Zack’s loud voice hit them.

“How come you don’t? We all have one! My real name’s Zachary and Billy’s real name’s William and Kim keeps calling Jason Jase… Everybody has at least one nickname”

Trinity never broke her silence but Kimberly was pleasantly surprised when she shrugged lightly. Then her eyes avoided the other girl’s again and Kimberly’s hand quickly shot out to grab one of her much smaller ones. Trinity flinched again, wide eyes meeting Kimberly’s with something in them that almost made the other girl frown but she kept on smiling.

“That’s okay. We can give you a nickname, right guys?”

“Yes! Of course!” Jason exclaimed and they all began to think about a good nickname.

“What about… Triddy?” Billy suggested and for the first time, Trinity looked up to the boy. She frowned slightly and Kimberly stood up, turning to face the boys but never letting go from the girl’s hand.

“Or Dee Dee!” Zack exclaimed loudly and now the girl pulled a face, making Kimberly chuckle quietly and shake her head.

“What about… Trini?” She suggested slowly and watched as the girl seemed to think it over, looking like she was saying the name over and over again in her head. Then, for the first time, she smiled. “Oh, you like Trini?”

“I like Trini” Billy nodded to himself, seemed satisfied and content.

“I like it too!” Jason said next and Zack rolled his eyes.

“I like Dee Dee better but… Well, I suppose Trini isn’t so bad” He smiled and Kim looked back to her newest friend. They eyes met and she smiled big.

“So… Trini? Do you want to be our friend?” She asked hopefully and saw Trini’s eyes widen slightly. She bit her bottom lip again and looked down for a couple seconds. When she looked up, Kim was still giving her the same hopeful look and finally – finally – she nodded. “Yay!”

“Alright! Now that we have another friend, can we go back to play?” Jason clapped his hands and Billy nodded and jumped up and down, a huge smile on his face. Zack took off running, the other two following behind and Kim tugged lightly on the hand still on her own.

“Come on, let’s go play” But instead of letting herself being pulled, Trini tightened her grip on Kim’s hand and tugged her gently. Kimberly turned around, standing right in front of the girl, opening her mouth to say something but stopping as soon as she saw Trini nervously shifting from one foot to the other, whimpering once before their eyes met.

“Hmm… Thank… Thank you” She whispered, her voice barely loud enough to be heard but it was enough to the biggest grin to take over Kimberly’s face.

“You’re welcome Trini! Let’s go play now!”


	2. Birthday Parties (Cake, Ice-Cream, Spies and Dinosaurs)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason's 6th birthday party. He loves dinosaurs, Kim loves cakes - only her aunt Beverly's though - Trini is tired and quiet but happy, Zack loves spies - and ice-cream and his teacher - and Billy is the sweetest. 
> 
> Oh, and their parents are there too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Thank you so much for the feedback (I'm overwhelmed really, you guys are amazing) so I decided to give it a real try.
> 
> I still have no idea where this is going (alright, maybe I have an idea or two, but still) so, feel free to leave any ideas or if you want to see anything happening.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!
> 
> ... Also, a friendly reminder that English is not my first language so I apologize from now Xx

“I’m having a birthday party this Saturday!” Was the first thing Jason said as soon as he reached his friends sitting by the book case of the classroom on the slow Monday morning.

“Oh, yay! Party!” Kim bounced up and down from her place on one of the beanbags she was currently sharing with her smallest friend, her bouncy and restless mood a strong contrast with the other’s quiet and sleepy form. She was about to clap happily when she stopped herself, head dropping a little to the side in thought “Oh, wait. I knew that already”

It was the middle of October now, the weather was beginning to drop and the kids had known each other for over a month, being an inseparable little group since day one. Beverly Scott was almost was excited as her son was to finally officially meet the three other kids her son and Kimberly would always talk about non-stop. So far she had only briefly got to meet Billy and his mom when she went to pick up Jason, seeing as both Trini and Zack rode the bus to and from school.

Zack looked up from his place sprawled out on the floor, looking just as bored and restless ad Kim did, and opened a big smile to his blonde friend “Will there be ice-cream?”

“And cake? Every birthday party has to have a cake! Is like a rule or something” Billy offered, nodding to himself with a dinosaur book open on his knees. Jason’s smile grew as he plopped down on the floor next to Zack, between Billy’s and the girls’ beanbags.

“There will be ice-cream and cake and candy and guess what? The theme of the party will be dinosaurs!”

“I like dinosaurs!” Billy clapped happily and Zack made a noise of agreement, sitting up and bouncing on his knees while all his boredom seemed to suddenly be replaced by buzzing energy.

“Uhum, my mom gave me invitations to give to you guys; it has my address and my mom’s numbers if your parents want to call her. It’s gonna be awesome!” Zack made another noise of agreement, shaking his head up and down and clapping.

“It is going to be fun… And Aunt Bev is the one who’s gonna make the cake” Kim said, her gaze turning distant as her little hands slowly rubbed her tummy and a smile began to play on the corner of her lips “… I love Aunt Bev’s cakes…”

Jason chuckled, knowing _exactly_ just how much Kim actually liked his mother’s cakes – not that he was blaming her – and looked around his friends. Zack had turned his body around and was now excitedly talking with Billy about the upcoming party – and how excited he was about his friends _finally_ getting to know his _awesome_ mom – and Billy was just as excitedly making plans – and, of course, just as excited at the prospective of his friends being able to meet his dad. Kim got out of her cake-induced-daze and turned her body to face Trini, a big smile on her face as she began to go on about how much fun they were going to have, almost too excited to notice how much the tiniest didn’t even seem the slightest cheerful.

If anything, the youngest of the group looked sad and worried. They were all used to the girl sleepy and tired nature on early mornings, especially on Mondays when she always seemed too tired to function all through the day and would be the first one in class to fall asleep during nap time, but today she somehow looked even worse, light dark shades under her eyes that Jason wasn’t used seeing in such young face. He frowned when he noticed that she was pretty much ignoring anything Kim was saying – she may be quiet, to a point were there were days where not a single word would leave her lips all day long, but she was the greater listener he ever met and never ignored any of them, especially Kimberly, who usually never left her side at any moment.

“Trini?” He called, stopping Kimberly on the middle of her ramble – he got the meanest glare a 5 year old could throw for that – and successfully gained the smallest attention as well “You’ll come to my birthday party, right?”

“Of course she will!” Zack exclaimed – too loud if you ask him – with a scoff and a shake of head “It will be awesome, but only if we all go”

“Zack’s right” Billy nodded, his eyes drifting towards the clock on the far wall that only a handful of kids could read – of course he could for over an year now – and neatly closing the book on his legs “We all have to go so it will be fun! You can come with me and my Dad and my Mom if your parents can’t go? Sometimes my Dad has to work on Saturdays on his researches – and sometimes he even lets me help him! – and sometimes my Mom has to work too, so if your parents can’t take you, you can come with us?”

“Yes, you have to come Trini!” Kimberly whined, her hand gripping on the material of Trini’s worn out yellow jumper and pulling lightly on it “The boys will come and Jason’s cousins… And his stupid friends from his soccer team… And my brother…. You gotta come so I’m not the only girl!”

Trini bit her bottom lip, a nervous habit they all grew familiar with and her eyes fixed on Kimberly’s hand on her arm, looking a bit uncomfortable which was unusual. Sure, she was almost as bad as Billy when it came to strangers touching her and flinched and shied away for reasons anyone had yet to know, but she was more than used by now with her friends’ constant touching. In fact, she seemed comforted by it and always seemed to unconsciously gravitate towards it – especially towards Kimberly’s natural touchy affection.

Before their conversation could go on further whatever, the bell rang – just one second after Billy put his book away on its right spot on the bookcase – and the always happy and nice teacher began to call everyone to their seats. Billy was the first one on his feet, being the obedient good student he was and Kimberly rolled her eyes, once again not very happy at being interrupted, but obeyed anyway, getting up from the beanbag and naturally grabbing Trini’s hand on her way, dragging the smaller girl with her towards their seats. Jason followed behind and huffed in annoyance when Zack dramatically threw himself back on the floor with a groan – he knew he was only looking for their teacher attention and the sly grin on his face when she finished calling all the students and went to grab him from the floor gave him away.

\---

  
The week went on smoothly as it ever did; Kimberly being her energized bubbly self, never happy at staying in one place for too long and occasionally showing off tricks she learned on her gymnastic classes, Billy being the perfect little student with too many information in his brain and too many big words, Jason being the sporty, friendly little thing who loved to show off his skills whenever there was a ball around, Zack being his untamed crazy self, climbing up things and always finding new ways to grab his beloved teacher’s attention – after his mom, she was the prettiest girl he ever met and nobody could tell him otherwise – and Trini being her quiet, sweet self, always being dragged left and right by Kimberly without a single complain, and barely keeping her eyes open until nap time rolled around.

The group of friends however, were unusually excited when the Friday dismiss bell rang; usually they were all upset at the perspective of not seeing each other for two whole days – or only seeing one-another in Kim and Jason’s case – but the idea of spending all day together at the Scott household doing nothing but playing put them all at a new perspective. Even Trini had a small smile on her face as Billy confirmed with her – once again – that yes, she would be going with his family on Saturday.

When Saturday – finally – arrived, all of the kids were up at unholy hours and begging for the clock to hurry until just after lunch and when it did, Candace Cranston tried not to show cringe when her less than happy neighbor showed up with a tiny little girl with shy big brown eyes and a present in her hands that could only been wrapped by the careful hands of a barely-5-year-old. The man barely said her two words, didn’t ask anything about where she would be taking his daughter and didn’t ask about when she would be dropping her off. Just squeezed her little shoulder and turned on his heel with a grunted warning of ‘behave’.

_(Her husband tried to settle her once the little girl was out of earshot in their son’s bedroom and she voiced her concerns. She raised a brow at him._

_“They don’t even know our names and I barely remember their faces; we’re driving their 5 year old to somewhere they don’t know and I bet they also didn’t call Beverly or know her in anyway. You tell me this is good parenting and I don’t know what being a parent is anymore”_

_William Cranston didn’t try to argue after that)_

  
“They’re here!” Kimberly announced loudly and jumping up and down when she saw Billy and Trini, followed by Billy’s parents and Jason’s mother walking into the Scott’s backyard, which had become considerably crowed with boys playing around with a soccer ball while she, Zack and the birthday boy himself climbed up and down the play structure his father had built a few years back.

“Billy! Trini!” Zack jumped down from the roof of the structure – because, of course it wasn’t fun if you couldn’t climb higher than you should – nearly giving his mother a heart attack, and ran towards his other friends. He was only mildly surprised when Kimberly – who was far behind him – managed to reach them first and nearly knocked Trini out of her feet with a hug.

“Hello Zack! Hello Kimberly!” Billy waved happily with the hand not holding his neatly wrapped present. Kimberly let go from her smaller friend, a beaming smile on her face and her mother was genuinely surprised from where she was sitting when she didn’t attempt to jump on Billy like she usually did with anyone else.

“Hi guys! I’m really happy you came!” Jason was usually a smiley child, but the smile he flashed whenever he saw his friends was something that put a huge smile on his mother’s face as well. She was surprised, however, when he smile grew even bigger when Billy met his eyes and smiled wide, holding out the wrapping in his hands towards the, now, 6 year old.

“Happy birthday Jason! I hope you like it – my dad took me to buy it and I choose the cooler looking one!” He said, nodding to himself when Jason grabbed the present from him. “Oh! But you can’t open it until after the party; you can’t open the presents until after the party… I don’t know why, but you’re not supposed to, right Dad?”

“Well, if he wants to, he can open it now, son” William Cranston said gently, setting a hand on his son’s shoulder who frowned at this information.

“… But….”

“That’s okay, Billy” Jason chuckled, accepting the less neatly wrapped present Trini was shyly holding out to him as well, smiling gratefully at her “I’ll open them all after the party, okay? I’m sure I’ll love it! We can go play now until is time for snacks, right mom?”

“Of course, sweetie” Beverly Scott smiled, gently taking the presents from her son’s hands and motioning for the couple still standing to follow her to the table where the Hart couple were currently animatedly talking to Karen Taylor.

“Oh, come on! We were playing ninja spies! And Zack, I’m not your partner anymore now that Trini’s here” Kimberly announced, all while dragging an anxious Trini and a happy Jason by their hands towards the play structure, Zack and Billy following right behind.

“But I wasn’t your partner? I don’t need a partner! I’m super Zack and I’m the best spy to ever live and I don’t need a partner!” He informed, shrugging and starting to climb – not on the part specific to climb of course, that would be _too_ easy – on the structure.

“No, me and Trini are the best and we will show you!” The little girl dressed in jeans and a pink shirt nodded to herself, dragging the smaller girl towards the small ‘cave’ on the structure, Trini smiling and nodding in agreement on her way.

“Come on!” Jason exclaimed and him and Billy immediately began to climb – through the right place – on the structure.

The hours that went by were pure bliss to the five kids; they played ‘ninja spies’ – which was by far their favorite game to play – for the best part of the time, Kim and Trini teaming up to their ‘missions’ that were choose and carefully planned by Billy while Zack tried to make everything more dramatic and finding new reasons for climb up things while Jason enjoyed telling the others what to do and being the ‘leader’ of their team. They managed at some point drag Kimberly’s brother and Jason’s older cousin into their game – and the boys ended up also having a good time while playing the bad guys for the little ones.

By the time it was time for the cake, the five kids had taken a break from their game and went on different ways; Jason joined his soccer friends for a quick game with his father, uncles and a couple of cousins, Zack was having the time of his life with Kimberly’s brother doing all sort of dares that either of them could come up with – nearly giving Karen and Maddy Hart heart attacks in more than one occasion – Billy found out one of Jason’s older cousin was a bit of a nerd with the coolest dinosaur book he had ever seen and Kimberly had decided she wanted to introduce Trini to her mother, which ended with a very nervous and shy Trini nearly hiding behind her for the best part of half an hour until the sweet, patient soul that was Maddy Hart managed to put the little girl into an easy enough so she even got one giggle or two out of her.

“Aunt Bev, I love your cake more than I love my pink teddy bear” Kimberly announced with a firm nod right after everyone sang Jason ‘Happy Birthday’ and his mom started to hand out the cakes. She laughed loudly and dropped a kiss to her ‘niece’s’ head as the little girl kept shoving the cake down her throat and moved on to serve cake to the other table.

“So, Trini” Maddy started gently, averting her amused eyes from her eating/moaning daughter to the small girl sitting next to her, both of them facing her from across the table “Kimmy here always talk a lot about you… Why don’t you come over one of those days so you two can maybe have a play date?”

“Yes!” Kimberly shouted, suddenly forgetting all about the cake she seemed to be so passionate about, and looked up to her mother with wide, hopeful eyes “Yes, please Mommy! That will be so fun, right Trin?”

Trini smiled a close mouthed smile and nodded, chewing on a mouthful of cake. Maddy smiled, curiously watching the interaction between the girls.

She had only met the little girl early on that day, but that and all the stories she had heard on the past month – and those were a lot – was all it took for her to grow found of the girl and also concerned.

Being the doctor that she was, Maddy was more than capable of spotting red flags whenever she saw one and she was definitely seeing more than a few on Trini. That and the few concerns Candace had shared early on had the doctor determinate to keep an eye on her daughter’s friend whom she seemed to care so much about.

 _“I scream!_ ” Maddy and Trini jumped in surprise, wide eyes snapping towards where Zack had came out – out of nowhere apparently – with a big bow in his hand. Kimberly opened the biggest smile with a mischievous glint in her eyes and held up her cake fork.

“You scream!”

“We all scream!” Zack yelled back and then Jason was jumping into the scene, a even bigger bow in his hand while Kimberly jumped up from the table.

“For **ICE CREAM**!”

“Oh, I love ice cream!” Billy bounced up and down, eyes fixed on the big bow in his hand and followed Zack and Jason sitting on the floor next to the table that Trini was still getting up from. Candace chuckled behind her son, bending down to offer one of the two bows in her hands to a shyly smiling Trini.

“I know you do, sweetie. Kimberly, dear, here’s yours”

“One second, Mrs. Cranston” Kim said, turning on her spot and standing on tip toes to grab the last bit of cake from her plate. She hummed happily and was just about to let go from her fork when she spotted Trini’s only half eaten cake. She eyed her mother for a second, keeping the eye contact for a full minute before she acted fast, shoving the whole thing into her mouth in two big bites and turned back around, grabbing the offered bow of ice-cream with a still full mouth “ _Fank oou_ ”

“I wish she would eat anything else like she does Beverly’s cakes” Maddy chuckled in amusement, shaking her head as she watched her daughter practically shove Zack out of the way so she could sit next to Trini. The boy hardly paid her any mind, too busy getting ice-cream all over himself to care.

“You know, when I grow up” Zack started randomly after a few minutes of silence where the five kids focused only on shove iced sweetness on their faces under the watchful eyes of three of their mothers “I’m gonna be a real life super spy”

“That’s cool!” Billy, who was by far a less messier eater than his friend, nodded happily, a far away look on his eyes “I wanna be an astronaut”

“And I wanna be a doctor!” Kimberly offered, playing around with her ice-cream more than eating it from how full she was after so much cake “Just like my Mommy! She’s the _bestest_ doctor ever!” Maddy smiled softly from where she was listening.

“I wanna be a teacher” Trini’s voice was soft and her eyes fixed on her half eaten bow.

“Oh, I love teaches!” Zack exclaimed, eyes wandering from his empty bow to Trini’s and Kimberly’s “… They are so nice and so pretty and… Are you going to eat that?”

Karen rolled her eyes in amusement at her son’s statement – knowing full well of her son’s hopeless (but sweet) crush on his teacher – and Kimberly slipped her almost full bow to him, Trini doing the same a second later and he wasted no time diving in both.

“I wanna be a soccer player” Jason said after swallowing a mouthful of ice-cream “… But my Daddy says I’ll be a football player… And the best of the whole world!”

“I don’t like football” Billy frowned, head dropping to the side and brow furrowing slightly “… It’s to violent”

“And ugly” Kim stuck out her tongue in disgust “And loud”

“… _And scary_ …” Trini offered in a whisper. Kimberly nodded in agreement and Zack frowned in thoughts.

“I like basketball better” He said, finishing Kimberly’s ice-cream and moving on to Trini’s mostly melted one. Jason shrugged and pushed his empty bow away from him.

“Well, my Daddy says its cool and I’ll like it when I’m older. I don’t really like it now but… Who wants to play tag?”

“Not it!” Zack yelled, jumping on his feet before anyone could process and already running away. Kimberly jumped up next and gave Jason a light tap.

“Tag, you’re it! Come on Trini, let’s run!” She grabbed the girl’s hand – that always seemed to be within her reach in any given time – and both girls ran on the opposite way, giggling on their way.

“Oh, are we playing already?” Billy asked, frowning at the mess of bows his friends left. He got up and bended down to pick up the bows and Jason smiled and got up to help him.

“Don’t worry, Billy, we’re not playing yet”

Jason grabbed all the bows and gave his friend time to run while he handed them to his smiling mother and for the next full hour the five children ran around the Scott backyard chasing each other, even allowing the other kids to join them at some point.

By the time the night came around and it was finally time to say goodbye, the tears began to run. And it was the one and only Kimberly Hart who brought out the water floods the second Ted announced it was time to go home.

“ _I don’t wanna go! I wanna play with Trini more Daddy!_ ” She cried loudly, full on tantrum mode while said little girl looked down sadly, but obediently accepting when Candace had also announced it was time for goodbye without as much as a peep.

“Honey, you’ll get to see Trini Monday at school. You guys played all day long; plus, I’m sure Trini’s Mommy and Daddy are missing her very much at home, right sweetheart?”

Maddy watched carefully as Trini hesitated for a second. Then she bit her bottom lip and nodded silently. She sighed when her daughter only cried louder and kneeled down on the floor, ready to try and calm Kimberly down but fully prepared to having to drag her away kicking and screaming. She was surprised whoever when Trini stepped forwards and grabbed Kim’s sleeve, tugging on it until their eyes met.  
  
“I’ll miss you, Trin” Kim said after a minute of what Maddy could only assume was a silent conversation with eyes with the other girl. Trini smiled and stepped forwards, wrapping her tiny arms around Kim’s waist in a tight hug.

Turns out that, at the end of the day, no kid had to be dragged - kicking and screaming - from the Scott household.  
  
Zack was deeply asleep on his mother’s shoulder – droll dripping from his parted lips – completely exhausted after the day while she politely said her goodbyes, Kimberly was awake to say her goodbyes but passed out as soon as her father buckled her up on her car seat, Josh also falling asleep before they could make it home, Trini and Billy looked too exhausted to function but remained awake the whole ride back home, Billy rambling on and on about how much fun they had while Trini fought against sleep, her head dropping forwards ever so often but refusing to sleep.

William Cranston tried not to frown too much and not to over think when he went to drop the half-asleep little girl at her home and her mother welcomed her with nothing but coldness, not even picking up the girl from his arms, only mentioning for him to set her down and ushering her inside, simply stating for her to head straight to bed and thanking him with a tight smile and screamed fake.

_(“If you ever want to take her anywhere with you again… You can just stop by and get her. I’m sure she’ll love it” Was all she said and the man tried not to be too bored by that._

_However, when Trini gave him a tiny wave before walking inside the house, he made a point of talking to his wife about bringing her to play dates with their son at regular bases)_

Jason Scott however wasn’t the slightest tired by the time the party was over. If anything, he had just as much energy as he did in the beginning of the day and insisted on opening all of his presents before bed.

When he finally went to bed, he slept clutching his new red Tyrannosaurus Rex – the one Billy had spent the whole day with his Dad choosing – to his chest and the biggest smile on his face. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So? What do you think? Lemme know!
> 
> Any ideas and opinions are welcome!
> 
> Thank you for reading! Hope you're enjoying it so far Xx


	3. After Christmas Break (Mean Santa Claus and Training-Wheels)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim's very angry at Santa for a very valid reason and the Harts decide to do something about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fist of all, thank you SO MUCH! You guys are amazing and I'm updating way faster than I first thought I would because of that - next chapter is already half way done and probably will be up in no time.
> 
> I'm really glad you're liking it and I hope you like this chapter aswell.
> 
> Oh and, as the Naomi Scott fan I am since the Lemonade Mouth days and the obsessed person with Terra Nova that I am (still not over the fact that that amazing masterpiece was cancelled), in my little heart Naomi's family will forever hold the faces of the Shannon family. If you never watched, I hightly recomend that you do (it's only one season and so worth it) but if you only want a view to what Kim's parents and brother look like in my head, just look it up. Or only imagine a older Naomi in Mama Hart's case. They look scarly alike if you ask me.
> 
> Hope you enjoy the chapter ;) Ideas, toughts and opinions are always very welcome

“I don’t like Santa anymore” Was the first thing Kimberly Hart in all almost-6-year old glory stated the second she stormed into the house in a true drama-queen diva-fashion way, not even sparing a single look at her startled mother setting the dinner table as she made a beeline dash towards the hallway, straight inside her pink room.

“… Did I miss something?” Maddy asked slowly, her eyes drifting towards her confused looking and slightly pale husband who opened and closed his mouth a few times before shrugging and then to her sweat-covered slightly-angry-looking son who shook his head, dropping his soccer shoes by the door before walking towards the kitchen.

“… She’s angry and annoying and Santa screwed up… Big time” Was all 8 year old Josh Hart murmured, more concerned in getting himself a glass of cold water than to explain the whole commotion to his more than confused parents.

“… On the nice note, at least we know they both actually still believe on Santa?” Ted said lamely, rubbing the back of his neck while it was Maddy’s turn to open and close her mouth like a lost fish with her hands on her hips.

It was now the beginning of January, Christmas and New Years break had just come to an end and school just stated earlier on that day. The last thing Maddy was expecting was her daughter to return home from gymnastics class looking nothing like the happy bubble she was too early on the morning, when she had been all too glad and all to happy to go back to school and her friends – a certain tiny little girl in specific.

“Mommy!” Kimberly called – more like demanded – once she stormed back into the living room, still dressed in her gymnastic clothes and now holding a piece of paper and a few crayons in her tiny closed fists “I need your help”

“… You do?” Maddy raised a slow and careful brow “… May I ask for what you need my help for…?”

“To write a letter to Santa” Kim nodded to herself, sharp and short and a determinate face that was so Hart that Ted felt a small, amused smile to form on his lips as she struggled to climb on her special seat on the dinner table.

“Hm… Honey, I’m not sure if you remember but Christmas was just like… Two weeks ago? Santa already gave you what you asked for…” That earned him a glare that honestly almost had him stumbling over his worlds. He was quite used to receive – and _fear_ – that exactly glare from a older version of his daughter “… But if you already want to write your letter for next year, that’s fi…”

“I _don’t_ want to ask Santa for _anything_!” She screamed, looking so upset that Maddy decided against scold her, more curious than anything “I want him to take _back_ what he gave me!”

“… What?” Ted was now officially confused. And so was Maddy. They kept on watching as Kim started to angrily scribble on her piece of paper and changed a quick glace from above her head.

“Santa is a big, fat, mean liar and I don’t like him anymore! I don’t want any of his stupid presents!”

“Kimmy, honey…” Maddy started slowly, dragging a chair to sit next to her daughter. She grabbed her hands gently, stopping her in her movements and encouraging her to look up at her. “Baby, why don’t you tell Mommy what…”

“She’s not _bad!_ ” Kim cried, tears filling her dark eyes as she looked up to her mother with so much hurt and anger “I don’t care what he says, he knows nothing! She’s not bad and if she was, than I’m way _badder_ because she’s way nicer than I am!”

“Kimmy, baby, what are you talking about?” Maddy tried again, gently cradling her daughter’s hands between her own while Ted approached them silently, kneeling down next to them watching his daughter with worry in his eyes.

“… Even Ty got a present Mommy! And Ty’s mean and annoying and he got him a stupid bike! She’s not bad Mommy, she’s _not_!” Kimberly now had tears of anger streaming down her face. Maddy’s frown was growing deeper by the second.

“Honey, who are you talking…”

“ _Trini_ ” Kimberly let out a tiny sob, more tears streaming down her face as her Dad gently wiped them away with his thumb.

“What?” Ted whispered, his heart breaking inside his chest with realization. His voice grew even softer “Honey… Did Santa not bring Trini anything?”

“He didn’t! And even worse Daddy, her Mommy told her that it was because Santa don’t bring bad kids gifts… But she isn’t bad Daddy, she isn’t!”

Maddy Hart was sure her heart was never so broken in her whole life. And that was saying something after all the things she had seen in her life as a doctor. But the way her daughter was crying right in front of her, her tiny fists gripping onto her fingers and wide eyes trying so hard to convince her parents that her friend wasn’t bad and the simple thought of the little girl she grew to care deeply about were shattering her heart into millions of tiny little pieces.

“She was so _sad_ Mommy” Kimberly continued, now in a softer voice while sniffling, the anger in her eyes disappearing while giving space for a deep sadness that wasn’t supposed to be there “Everyone was talking and happy and she was just _there_ , and when Zack asked her she was so sad because she was the _only_ bad kid who didn’t get a present… She didn’t want to talk to anyone Mommy, not even me! And on nap time she didn’t want to lay with me like she always do! And _stupid_ Ty found out and he was so mean and Zack pushed him and now he’s in trouble but he _isn’t_ bad _either_ Mommy! None of them is!”

“Oh baby…” Maddy whispered, pulling her daughter into her lap and wrapping her arms tightly around her, chin resting on top of her head and eyes making contact with the blue ones of her husband. His face was hardened, his jaw sat tight and his eyes had a dangerous glint in them that reminded her just how scary her soft-hart of a husband could be while in angry-cop mode. “I’m so sorry, Kimmy… I don’t know what happened but we all know that Trini _isn’t_ bad and…”

“What’s Trini’s last name, sweetheart?” Ted asked out of nowhere, bringing both girls attention to him, twin looks of confusion in their nearly-identical faces.

“… Hm… Gomez… I-I guess?.... Why?” Maddy was raising a brow towards her husband while their daughter answered and he hummed, one finger tapping his chin while he narrowed his eyes, doing his best to look deep in thoughts.

“… And she wanted for Christmas…?”

“A bike” Kim sniffled again, anger slipping back on her sad little face “We all asked for bikes, and he brought it for me and for Billy and for Zack and for Jason, but…”

“Aha!” Ted exclaimed suddenly, making both his wife and daughter jump. He then smiled big, even thought Maddy could still clearly see the badly hidden anger on his eyes “I knew it!”

“Knew what?” Kim asked.

“You see… Every year, right after Christmas, some gifts arrive at the police station because, you know, a lot of stuff that get lost are handed there right? So, every year some of Santa’s gifts that ended up getting lost ends up in there and I was fairly sure that just yesterday, I may have spotted a beautiful bike in there with this exact name on it!”

“What?” Kimberly’s eyes when wide with surprise at the same time that Maddy tried to blink away the tears suddenly blurring her view, a soft smile on her lips “… Trini’s present is at the station?”

“I’m almost sure it is!” Ted nodded, his smile widening when Kimberly’s face began to change into something close to relief and happiness.

“So… He wasn’t being mean? He just… Lost her present?” She asked slowly. Then a big grin broke onto her still wet face “… I still think he’s really stupid, how did he lost her present? But at least he isn’t mean…”

“… Lets lay a little low from that ‘S’ world now, shall we….?” Maddy scolded gently but then Ted was jumping onto his feet and clapping his hands.

“Alright; you young girl, go run to the shower right now and then you and your Mommy are going to pick up Trini from her house…” He started, his eyes glued with his wife’s in a silent conversation “… And I’ll go down at the station and then you’re going to meet me and Trini’s gift on the park, how about that?”

“Yes!” The little girl jumped from her mother’s lap, a huge grin on her face and tears long forgotten. She turned to Maddy with big shinning eyes and jumped up and down for a second “She’s gonna be so happy! I’ll go take my shower!” And then she was running back into the hallway, her whole demeanor the complete opposite as it was when she first reached the house.

“I’ll go with you, Dad” Josh said, not giving more of a space for an argument as he made his way towards the door. Ted froze for a second, pulling a face while trying to come up for a reason why his son couldn’t come with him. But Josh beat him to it when he huffed and rolled his eyes “I know we’re actually going to the bike-store”

“Hm… You do?” Maddy asked slowly with a raised brow. Josh made a ‘duh’ face.

“Please Mom, I know that there’s no lost Santa present on the police station… But Trini deserves a really cool bike and that won’t happen if Daddy goes to pick it on his own”

“Hey!” Ted exclaimed offended and Maddy bit back a laugh. Josh rolled his eyes and opened the front door.

“Come on, Dad!” And he stepped outside murmuring something about _“Santa is a idiot for not bringing her a present and now we have to fix it”_

Maddy sighed deeply and stepped forwards, gripping the collar of Ted’s shirt to bring him in for a quick kiss and a long look before she stepped back, anger suddenly written all over her face.

“Those _damn **stupid** motherfuckes_ ”

Ted chuckled a dark chuckled with a shake of head and headed out, phone in one hand as he went through his contacts.

“ _Hey, Sam?... We gotta some stuff to do_ ”

\---

“Can I help you?” June Gomez asked in all her arrogance when she opened her front door to come face-to-face with one really pissed-looking Maddy Hart trying to hold back her anger.

“Hello Mrs. Gomez, is Trini there?” Trust Kimberly Hart to be polite and cheery in the face of the woman who had such a disgusted look on her face towards her. If anything, Maddy could always be proud of her daughter’s manners at the end of the day.

“Why you ask?”

“Because…” Kimberly lowered her voice to a whisper, her smile never leaving her face and her gaze never leaving the rude woman before her “… They found her Christmas present! It was lost and they found it on the police station, Mrs. Gomez! You don’t have to worry, Trini isn’t bad, they just lost her present! Oh, but don’t tell her that yet, we are taking her to the park to surprise her, right Mommy?”

_Oh, a children's innocence…_

June’s surprised gaze immediately went back to meet the hard glare of the one Doctor Madison Elizabeth Hart, her eyes just daring the woman to say anything back, anything at all and so many emotions purring out of her; not of them not even remotely good.

The women held their stare contest for a long moment, so many words spoken into the deafening silence until, finally, June broke it in order to turn her head around to bark her daughter’s name into the house.

“Trini! Hi!” Kimberly exclaimed happily, waving excitedly when the little girl ran into the living-room in small quick silent bare feet, wearing grey leggings and her seemly favorite baggy yellow jumper and the most confused and worried face as she looked between her mother and her best friend and her mother on her doorstep.

“Go put your shoes on” June said, barely even looking at her daughter as she spoke “Your… _Friend_ is taking you somewhere”

The way the woman said ‘friend’ with so much disdain almost made Maddy forget all about the kids around and give a piece of her mind to her, but at Trini’s even more confused and anxious face she forced herself to soften her features, smiling gently at the little girl.

“We got a surprise for you, sweetheart”

“You’ll love it! Come on, Trin!” Kimberly hurried and the other girl bit her bottom lip, eyeing her mother until the woman gave her a sharp nod to scurry to where her worn out sneakers where, neatly leaning against the corner of the wall.

“Grab your coat too, sweetie” Maddy asked when she saw June making not a move to do so when the little girl had slipped in her socks and sneakers. Trini nodded quickly and ran to grab her coat while the women entered in yet another staring down contest.

There was so much Maddy wanted to tell the woman; so much she suspect but had no proof just yet; so much she laid awake at night wondering after more than a few concerning story her daughter would tell her or the way Trini acted whenever she saw her when she would bring her over for a play date or bring her along for a day at the park with the other kids.

She despised the woman and her husband, more at each day, and what she hated the most was that, so far, other than the red flags, she had no indication that the couple was _unfitting_ parents according the law. Rude assholes that shouldn’t be allowed to having children, sure, but not a single real evidence of abuse of negligence.

Trini had never once verbally indicated anything towards her receiving any kind of verbal abuse – but then again, she never really did talk. And while this fact, plus the flinching and anxiousness at all time where rather alarming, it didn’t necessarily mean anything, as Beverly – who happened to be a social worker – had sadly pointed out. All the parents kept their eyes open for any sight of bruises on the girl but had yet to find any that wasn’t caused by _actual_ accidents with their kids as witness or even with themselves _(the girl was a bit of accident prone after all)_ and she had yet to hear about the girl being left alone at home or not bringing lunch to school.

So, at the end of the day, so far, the Gomez were just idiot assholes that she whished that were never even born, but that’s about it. Maddy found comfort at the idea that, at least, Trini always seemed genuinely happy whenever she was with her friends and at really easy whenever she came over to the Hart household.

“I’ll bring her back after dinner” Maddy said, throwing one last glare towards the other woman when Trini came to stand next to her, immediately allowing Kimberly to take her hand into her own.

The woman barely nodded and only spared a quick look to her daughter before stepping back inside the house and closing the door behind her, not even bothering to say goodbye.

The sadness that flashed in Trini’s eyes was gone so fast that it was barely there, but it was enough to almost make Maddy knock on the door again so she could do something she’d probably regret later.

“Come on Mommy! Trini’s surprise is waiting for her!” Kimberly said, happily dragging her friend towards the parked car and Maddy smiled down when she saw the genuine smile growing in Trini’s still confused face.

“Let’s go, my sweet girls”

\---

“We’re almost there!” Kimberly exclaimed happily while Trini bit her bottom lip anxiously, tiny hands gripping the much larger ones covering her eyes tightly.

They had just arrived the park and immediately after she took the girls out of their car seats (Trini was using Josh’s old one), Maddy had gently covered her eyes with her hand and began to lead the little girl to where Ted had told her to go, Kimberly happily skipping ahead of them.

“We’re here!” Kim screamed again, now bouncing up and down and excitement and barely managing to contain tiny squeals of happiness.

“Are you ready, sweetheart?” Maddy asked gently, kneeling behind the little girl with a big smile with her hand still covering her eyes.

Trini nodded gently, teeth still digging so deep on her bottom lip that tiny marks were beginning to appear and her grip on the woman’s hand not loosening the slightest.

Then she uncovered her eyes and the look of surprise and utter confusion on the little girl’s face was quite priceless.

Standing right in front of her were _all_ of her friends and _all_ of their parents.

Beverly Scott was standing behind Jason, both wearing twin grins while she rested her hand on her still-non-existent baby-bump (she just found out about the new baby a few weeks ago) and the boy had his red helmet in his head and his red dinosaur-themed bike in hands.

Karen Taylor had her arms crossed above her chest and a gentle smile standing next to her smirking son, Zack also wearing his black helmet and standing with his shining black bike in between his legs.

Candace and William Cranston stood behind their son, both also smiling with William with an arm around his wife’s shoulder while Billy had a huge smile, wearing not only a blue helmet but knee and elbow pads as well, holding onto the handlebars of his dinosaurs-themed blue bike.

Josh Hart didn’t have a helmet in his head, however, he did have a huge smile on his face and the handlebar of his – way bigger – blue bike in one hand and Kim’s pink one on the other.

And then, there were Sam Scott kneeling on the floor holding a bright yellow helmet and a pack with yellow knee and elbow pads and Ted Hart also kneeling, holding the most beautiful yellow bike Trini had ever saw in her small life.

And then, Zack was yelling with that same grin still on his face.

“Santa didn’t forget about you! He was just really stupid and sent it to the wrong place!”

 _“Zack_ ” Karen scolded only half-hearted and behind a frozen Trini, Maddy chuckled softly.

“I _told_ you Santa didn’t think you are bad, Trin!” Kimberly stated with a smug smile on her face. Trini’s head snapped to the side quickly to face her best friend and the look on her face was nothing if not of utter confusion and surprise.

“ _… What?”_ She whispered so softly that only Maddy and Kimberly – who were right next to her – heard. Maddy gently put her hands on the girl’s tiny waist and rubbed soft circles with her thumbs.

“Your bike!” Kimberly exclaimed again, pointing to the yellow bike by her father a few steps from them “It was at the police station this whole time! Santa sended it to the wrong place, Trini, but he brought it! And it’s pretty!”

They all watched in silence as the heels on the little girl’s brain began to roll, the adults watching with more attention than the children, anxious about her reaction that took a few seconds to take place.

And when it finally happened, hormonal-pregnant Beverly had to discretely wipe a stubborn tear from the corner of her eye.

Trini looked between her friends, their bikes and her own for a couple times and when the realization hit her, they all fully expected her to sprint towards her bright present just as fast as all the other kids did on the Christmas morning.

They didn’t expect her to turn around to face Maddy – whom she had grew fairly close with in the past few months – with the most beautiful, hopeful smile on her face, tears in her eyes and a slight tremor on her chin.

“I’m… I’m not _bad_?” She whispered with so much hope, her finger once again squeezing the woman’s and Maddy nearly broke down on the spot.

“Or course not, sweetheart” Maddy squeezed her fingers back gently, images of just how sad the girl must have been earlier on the day flashing behind her eyes “You are a _wonderful_ little girl and I need you to believe in it always, alright? No matter what anyone else might say, alright?”

“I’m not bad…” She whispered again, her smile growing even bigger as she seemed to roll the worlds over and over again in her head, making Maddy wonder just how much time the girl had spent believing otherwise in the space of time she spent traveling with her husband and kids during the long break.

It made her wonder about just how those days must have been for the little girl and just how her life was before school started and they all met her.

“Kimmy!” Trini gasped, jumping around to face her friend with wide eyes of amazement and the biggest smile that had ever seen on her sweet features “I’m not bad!”

“I know you’re not, silly” Kim laughed, pulling her friend from her mother’s arms and into her own in a quick motion, holding her close for a long moment “I told you that!”

“Come on, Trin!” Jason called, climbing up his bike – that was already training-wheel free, of course because he was Jason Scott and the oldest of his friends and of course he didn’t need training wheels anymore.

“Let’s race!” Zack yelled, still balancing his also training-wheel-free bike between his legs.

“Yes! Let’s go!” Kim said, breaking the hug with a quick kiss on her friend’s cheek and grabbed her hand, running towards the others while dragging the smaller girl.

When Kimberly let go of her hand to go grab her own bike from her brother and put on the bright pink helmet ranging from the handlebars, Trini was left standing right in front of her new bike with a face of full amazement. She didn’t flinch away when Ted grabbed the yellow helmet from Sam and gently set it on her head, moving to clasp it under her chin.

Then she looked up with a frown and an anxious look towards Ted and Zack – who had made his way to right next the man at some point – and bit down, once again, on her bottom lip.

“I… Hm… I don’t know how…” She whispered, her voice trailing of towards the end until complete silence as her eyes grew concerned.

“That’s no problem at all!” Billy chimed in, pedaling his bike – that still had training wheels on them – towards them with Jason trailing right behind him “You’re got training wheels, see? Just like mine! They would allow you to fall and will help you to practice just until you’re ready to ride by yourself. I think I may be taking mine off in a few more weeks, but I don’t think I’m quite ready just yet… Oh! We can learn together!” He clapped happily, nodding at himself.

“ _Plus_ , Santa got you some extra protection, just to be on the safe side” Sam winked, now holding the pack with the protection pads. Beverly chuckled and took the pack from him, opening it while kneeling on a free spot next the little girl.

“Come here, sweetheart”

Trini allowed Beverly to help her and, by the time everything was well adjusted in place – her eyes never leaving the bike with the same glint in them – Maddy had also helped Kimberly to adjust her own helmet on her head and forced Josh to put his own.

Ted helped the little girl to climb on the bike and he and William made a quick job of lowering the seat to the lowest setting in order to allow the girl’s tiny legs to reach the pedals. And Candace and Karen took pictures – a lot of them. From the little girl alone and from all of the kids together.

Then Kimberly and Zack grew impatient.

“Come on! Let’s run now! I bet Trin and I are faster than all of you, silly boys!”

“Oh, you wish Kimmy!”

“Let’s go!”

“Yes!”

And the kids took off – all of them silently agreeing on waiting for Trini to give the first pedal before the others did. And Ted tailed behind the youngest for a second of two, his hand reaching out just in case she lost her balance (even thought she _had_ the training-wheels) until she got the hang of it and began paddling faster, matching the peace of her friends with ease.

When all the kids were off playing, paddling around the park within the eye-reach of their parents, said adults traded looks with too many emotions to put in words.

They were all waiting for the tiniest slip from the Gomez couple while also hoping against hope that they were all wrong and things weren’t, in fact, as bad as it seemed.

\---

“It was so fun! I can’t wait for us to go back to the park this weekend!” Zack exclaimed happily in between bites of his burger. Jason, to his left, excitedly nodded in agreement, his little hands filled with french-fries while he was still swallowing his preview mouthful. Next to Jason, Billy also agreed, his mind only half there as he focused on a specific pattern while eating; one frie, one bite of his burger, one sip of his juice, repeat.

“Yeah, and I’ll beat you on the race _again_ ” Kimberly said smugly from across the table, sandwiched between her brother and Trini, the older smirking behind his milkshake straw while also still trying to look annoyed by the youngsters while the smaller girl was still looking like she had note ever quite been so happy before, dipping one frie on her shared cup of ketchup between her food and Kim’s.

“Pff, please… I let you win” Zack waved his hand dismissively, rolling his eyes towards his friend on his side “Mom says I have to be a gentleman, and gentleman have to do stuff like that, right Jase?”

“Whatever you say, buddy” Jason shrugged, the glint on his eyes giving his amusement away while Kimberly scoffed.

“We all know I’m the fastest, running _and_  riding” She said, dramatically leaning back against the back of her booth in a true little smug diva way “Just admit it”

“Well, I mean, we Harts are quite amazing so…” Josh also shrugged, the smug glint on his blue eyes looking almost identical to his sister’s. Zack made a bored face and made a show of grabbing one of Jason’s fries (his own were long gone by now) and throwing it in the general direction of the Hart siblings.

Hitting Josh square on the forehead while also sending some flying ketchup right into Kim’s pink shirt.

 _“Hey!”_ Came the twin cries of complain from the siblings while Zack’s smirk grew.

“And that’s, my friends, is was I call a double score”

All the kids – besides the Harts – broke off in a fit of giggles after that, Josh soon joining while wiping the ketchup from his forehead and Kimberly began a long rant of complain about ‘that’s my favorite shirt, butthead!”

It wasn’t but, hey, so _what_ if it wasn't?

After long hours just riding around their bikes on the park and having the time of their lives, the kids were beyond thrilled when their parents decided that they deserved a special dinner for no reason at all

_(They just wanted to see that bright smiles for a bit longer, can you blame them?)_

The adults decided to leave the kids very comfortable, letting them pick their own table against the window of the restaurant while they got a table nearby; close enough to keep a careful eye on them, far enough to leave them comfortable on their own little word.

“Did you like your bike, Trin? I think it is really cool, and it’s even your favorite color! Just like mine is pink and Jason’s red and Zack’s black and Billy’s and Josh’s are blue!”

Josh held a proud smirk for having reminded that little piece of information and had stopped his Dad from grabbing the pink one he had first suggested.

He remained silent while taking a big bite from his burger.

“It’s perfect” Trini said honestly, in that tiny voice of hers that rarely ever went above a whisper. Her eyes were shining and her little hand met Kim’s on its resting place on the table “Today was the best day of my life”

Maddy – somehow – managed to hear this little piece of information (or more likely read the little girl’s lips from the close distant she was) and her eyes immediately filled with tears.

But it was when the little girl bit her bottom lip – an action she didn’t make all thorough the afternoon – and made eye contact with Kimberly for a long second, whispering the most meaningful _‘thank you’_ she had ever seen from a kid, that that one stubborn tea slipped from the corner of her eye.

Kimberly leaned closer with a big smile and gently kissed her friend’s cheek before turning her attention back to her juice and other friends.

“Hey, T, are you going to eat the rest of your burger?” Karen let out an exasperate – slightly amused – breath at the sound of her son’s voice while the other adults chuckled.

Zack ended up being the one to finish Trini’s burger and Jason the one to finish Kim’s fried; and the adults still had to order a big portion of fries for the boys a few minutes after all the food was gone.

None of the kids stopped smiling until it was time to go home;

They were all to tired to argue against departing and Kim was way too exhausted to bring out the water floods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I officially have no idea to where I’m going with all of this – this story has a mind of its own, I swear, I’m just the one putting it into words the best I can – and as its turns out, I guess its focusing on the little ones families more than I thought it would?
> 
> Anyway, I hope you’re enjoying it? Isn’t all that bad, right?
> 
> Also, next chapter will feature the arrival of a certain awesome new teacher that just might or might not play a big part into the whole picture? Any guesses to who is she? I know I personally kind of love her…
> 
> So, gimme your thoughts, opinions and ideas. All is welcome ;)


	4. Summertime (The Beach, The Spectrum and Nightmares)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kindergarten ended too soon. Jason gets a little sister, Kim loves swimming and is really fast, Trini gets nightmares, Zack can never stand still for too long and Billy is on the spectrum.
> 
> Or, 3 random moments of the children's first summer vacation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm not happy about this chapter. It wasn't even supposed to exist. It's more of a filling chapter than anything, just something to occupy space because I kinda of didn't want to make a whole year time jump? Point is, I feel like the real story is about to start next chapter. They starting first grade and all.
> 
> We'll get some inside look on Trini's home life, and we'll get some action. And the chapters will have a more firm time-line with less time jumps.
> 
> Still, hope you enjoy this one anyway? Just don't give up on the story just yet
> 
> Here goes nothing

“I love the beach!” Jason exclaimed happily the second Ted Hart helped him to get out from his mini-van.

“And I love the sea! I can’t wait to go swim! I bet I can swim faster than you, Jase!” Kim yelled cheerfully while her mother picked her up from her car seat and set her on her feet next to her friend.

“I bet you can! But you can’t beat me on soccer and we are so going to play soccer, right Uncle Ted?”

“You bet we will” Josh answered instead, jumping out from the van behind his friend and going to help his parents to grab their things from the trunk of the car.

“Urg, I hate soccer” Kim whined, dramatically throwing her head back “I’m not gonna play”

Jason shrugged “That’s okay… Aunt Maddy, are the others here yet?”

“They are, sweetie” The woman answered, handing one light bag of sand toy to her daughter as a soccer ball to Jason before turning around to grab the last big bag from the trunk “Candace called me a few minutes ago, we’re heading to where they are right now”

“Sweet!” Kimberly jumped up and down and was less than a second away from randomly taking off towards the general direction of the beach before her mother’s quick free hand shoot out to grab her on the collar of her UV shirt, her warning eyes telling her enough without a single word. “Sorry, I know, no running away or wandering off”

The group of six quickly made their way to where Candace had told she was, Ted struggling to carry a world of bags and a beach umbrella while Josh and his friend carried a middle-sized cooler, the two younger kids skipping happily ahead under Maddy’s careful eyes.

Kindergarten ended too soon.

Summer break came around way too fast for the little group of wild children and their – mostly – devoted parents.

And, of course, the parents had made a number of plans to get together for the kids to play, starting from the first week school-free.

And what way better to start the summer than going to the beach?

The Scott couple and Karen were somewhat upset that they couldn’t be there but with the birth of little Pearl Scott only a few weeks prior and Karen’s busy life as a single-working mother, they were just happy that their kids were having a great time with their friends.

It didn’t take long for Jason and Kimberly to spot their other three friends, playing on the sand with William Cranston only a few feet away from where Candace was sitting under an umbrella, watching them with a soft smile on her lips.

“Trini!” Kim was running in full speed before Maddy could even try and open her mouth, dropping her bag of toys on the sand on her way. She just roller her eyes in amusement and watched as her daughter all but tackled the smaller girl on the soft sand.

“Hi guys!” Jason greeted with a smile, waving with the hand not holding the soccer ball as he approached.

“Hello Jason, hello Kimberly!” Billy waved happily, his signature beaming smile brightening up his whole face.

“Yeah, hey Jase, HELLO **KIMBERLY** ” Zack said with a roll of his eyes when the taller girl finally let go from her giggling best friend.

“HELLO **ZACHARY** ” And Zack was tackled to the ground by the girl considerably smaller than him. She made a show of pinning him on the ground and gave a big kiss on his cheek, which left him yelling dramatically and rolling around on the sand.

“Cooties! I got cooties! Urg, gross!”

“Kim doesn’t have cooties… Right?” Billy asked confusedly and Kimberly roller her eyes in her signature very dramatic way.

“No, I don’t! Zack just really silly, Billy, don’t worry. Can I give you a kiss too?” She asked sweetly and waited until he gave her the okay. Then he blushed dark read when she pecked his cheek gently.

“Hi guys! Remember my friend Connor?” Josh said as he approached the younger kids. Billy looked like he had to think about it for a second until he nodded, Zack was already bobbing his head up and down excitedly and Trini was shyly half hiding behind Kimberly.

“Of course! You guys play ninja spies with all the times when we go to your house” Zack said in a ‘duh’ voice and Connor chuckled, running a hand through his blonde hair and nodded “I like you, by the way”

“I like you guys too” The older boy declared and the Hart couple – after saying their hellos to the Cranstons and setting their things down – made their way towards the kids.

“Hello sweethearts”

“Aunt Maddy!” Trini exclaimed happily, the girl having coming a long way from the nervous little thing she used to be around those adults. Still, she was a little cautious when said woman crushed down and opened her arms for a gentle hug.

“Hi Uncle Ted! Caught any bad guys today?” Zack asked excitedly, looking up at Kimberly’s father, whom he had taken to seeing as a real life hero since he learned what he did for a living.

“No, not today, Zack” Ted chuckled, patting the boy’s head gently. Then he waved back at Billy, who seemed to be in some sort of a daze looking at something on the sand.

“Can we go to the sea now, Mommy?” Kim asked, energy radiation off of her in waves. Maddy looked up to the sea, seeing how calm it was and shrugged.

“I don’t see why not… Only if an adult comes with you though and don’t you even think about going deeper than waist level, young lady”

“Sweet! Come on Jase! I can’t wait to kick you butt!” She stated, little hand wrapping around her father’s fingers to pull him with her. The man rolled his eyes, but allowed himself to be pulled by his daughter.

“Alright! But we’re playing soccer later!” Jason said and Kimberly rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, sure, whatever… Come on Zack, Billy! Trin, come on! Josh, Connor!”

“I’ll go grab my Dad!” Billy announced, taking off to where his parents were and Trini and Zack were just about to follow Kimberly, Jason, Josh and Connor with Ted when Maddy’s hands reached out, grabbing both by the arms.

“Not so fast you two” She raised a brow at them, eyeing them. Both of them had UV shirts on, Zack with green swim trunks under his black one and Trini with a baby blue short swim shorts under her grey one “Did the both of you put on sunscreen?”

“Aunt Candy put it on us, even though my Mom had already put it on me at home” Zack pulled a face, his tongue sticking out from the corner of his lips “Its really gross”

“It is” Trini wrinkled her nose while using one hand to push her long hair away from her eyes. Maddy smiled sympathetically at them and let go from their arms, grabbing Trini by the waist and gently turning her around, gently starting to put her hair up in a ponytail using one of the elastic bands she always seemed to have on her wrist.

“It is kinda gross, I agree, but you all be putting some more of it in a few hours” At this, twin whines of complain left their lips “No whining. No go, have fun”

“Let’s go!” Billy yelled, just happening to be coming through on that exactly moment dragging his father with him.

The day went on as smoothly as it could, the kids playing none stop and running around like the wild little things they were.

Kim won almost every swim competition they made – she only lost to Josh a couple of times and once to Trini when it was only the two of them _(she let her win, but Trini doesn’t need to know that)_

Jason’s team beat Kim’s on the soccer game (even if him, Josh and Billy were one person down against Connor, Kim, Trini and Zack)

Zack ate too much ice-cream, per usual stealing Trini’s only half eaten one and whatever Kim always seemed to leave.

Billy had the time of his life with his friend but also made sure to spend a great amount of quality one-on-one time with his father, both of them even telling some informational stories about the beach and beach rocks to his friends.

And Trini was the happy little thing she always seemed to be whenever she was around her friends and their families, completely at ease and happy in doing whatever anyone suggested. And she ended up being the only one who needed a half-hour long nap after lunch, cuddled up under the umbrella next to Candace while the others build a sand castle with Ted and William.  
Overall, it was a great start of summer for all the kids.

\---

“I’m on the spectrum” Billy said randomly one day around the middle of summer on a rainy afternoon when the kids ended up stuck inside the Cranston residence having a movie day – with a lot of snacks made by Candace.

“… You’re on _what_?” Zack asked with the world’s most confused face as he averted his gaze from ‘Finding Nemo’ on the screen and looked up from his place sprawled on the mattress on the floor to his friend on the couch.

“On the spectrum… It means that I am autistic… Or actually, that I have autism but… I guess that’s the same right?”

“Hmm… Cool?” Jason mirrored Zack’s confused face, also sitting on the mattresses on the floor with a huge bowl of popcorn that was mostly completely gone by now.

“And what does _that_ mean?” Kim asked next, laying upside down on the armchair by herself, her long hair almost brushing against the floor from her less-than-usual position.

“That means… That I am different” Billy said carefully, a hint of anxiousness on his furrowed face. Trini, also on the floor laid down with her head on a fluffy pillow near Kim’s head frowned in confusion, head tilting to the side slightly.

“We are _all_ different?”

“No… Well, I mean, yes… I guess?” Billy tried, looking like he was trying very hard to find the words explain what he had in his mind. He began to fidget with his fingers, a nervous habitat that the kids were as used to as they were to Trini’s lip biting. Kim began to shift her position until she was sitting up like a normal person with her legs crossed and gave her whole attention to her friend “… I mean, yes, we are all different, of course we are, but… I’m a different kind of different”

“Different kind of different?” Zack asked while he and Trini sat up, all of the kids forgetting all about the movie still playing and watching Billy with confused and curious eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that… I’m sick?” The little boy said, uncertain in his words as his frown deepened. Jason raised a brow.

“You’re sick? You don’t look sick to me”

“You have the flu? Josh has the flu! You got the flu too?” Kim’s eyes went wide at the realization, discreetly sliding on the armchair, getting further away from the couch her friend was “You’re not gonna get all gross and icky too, are you? You gonna barf too? Josh barfed on the floor yesterday and it was… Eww”

“No! I’m not _that_ kind on sick” Billy cut her off, shaking his head while his finger began to trump frenetically against his thigh “I… Have an illness? A… Per… Pervasive developmental disorder… I think that’s the name, if I’m not mistaken…”

The 6 year olds around him blinked their wide eyes very slowly.

They were used by now with Billy’s big words that not even adults used most of the time but this was a whole new level.

Confused didn’t even start to describe how the other kids were feeling.

“… I really don’t like when you use big words” Zack whined, closing his eyes and bringing his slightly candy-sticky fingers to rub his temples “They make my head hurt”

“A… Are you gonna…” Trini started slowly, voice soft and shaken while tears welled up in her big brown eyes “… Are you gonna di-die?”

“ _What?_ ” Jason squealed, wide eyes turning to the little girl next to him with a horrified look on his face “Why would he die?”

“ ‘Cuz he sa-said that he’s sick an’ not the flu kind of sick…” She said, voice trailing off towards the end of her sentence “… Sometimes, when a person gets sick… Not the flu kind of sick… They… Die”

“… She’s right” Kim said somberly, Jason’s panicked blue eyes now lifting up to look at her “My Daddy’s brother died cuz he got very sick… Not the flu kind of sick”

“But… Billy will die?” Zack asked, eyes going wide with pure panic as he jumped up on his feet in a blink of the eye “Billy can’t die!”

“Guys! Guys!” Said little boy exclaimed, waving his hands around when he noticed the chaos beginning to ensure around him, Zack gripping his hair between his fingers, Trini already in tears, Kim nearly there and Jason more pale than he had ever seen him before “I’m not gonna die!”

“No?” Zack asked, fingers loosening their grip on his hair.

“No! Is not kind of sick either… Is not really even a sickness, really, is more of a disorder… I used the wrong word, I’m sorry”

“Oh, thank God” Zack let out a huge sigh of relief, taking two steps to jump up on the couch next to his friend, momentarily ignoring that he wasn’t very big on hugs and wrapping his arms tightly around him.

“Hm… Yeah?” Billy shifted, uncomfortably eye his friend with his arms around him “… Can you stop touching me now, please?”

“Hm? Oh yeah, sorry” Zack let go of him and slid a bit away from him on the couch. Meanwhile, Jason made his way to the couch and jumped on his other side while Kim had pulled Trini on her armchair with her – the two girls being tiny enough that you could still fit another little person in there.

“So… What does it mean? That you have au… Auti…” Jason stumbled with his words, his eyes narrowing.

“Autism” Billy supplied for him.

“That. What does it mean?”

Billy licked his lips and opened his mouth to speak. Then he stopped, his brow furrowing once again as he looked around his friends, studying each one of their faces.

Jason’s confused bright blue eyes that always seemed so genuine and gentle. The way his blonde hair fell on his pale forehead, covering the fading tiny bruise in his temple he had gotten while playing soccer with his cousins.

Zack’s curious dark eyes that always seemed to hold a distinct glint of mischievous on them, his messy dark hair that he was always too lazy to brush and would somehow always mess whenever his mother brushed for him, some chocolate still to be spotted on the corner of his lip.

Kim’s questioning strong gaze that always managed to hold the perfect hold between smug and caring, her long bright dark hair carefully tucked behind her ears, the tiny mole on the upper corner of her lip that she insisted in calling ‘beauty mark’.

Trini’s still slightly wet big brown eyes that always seemed so anxious yet at the same time gentle and loving, some of her long hair covering a part of her face and light shades under her eyes that appeared every now and then.

All of them waiting, giving him all of their individual attention with all the patience in the world.

Finally he shrugged, body relaxing and a tiny smile growing on the corner of his lips.

“I guess… I guess it only means that I’m a little different really”

“Oh” Kimberly’s opened her mouth, frowned for a second and then shrugged too “That it’s cool, I guess?”  
  
“Yeah…” Billy nodded, his eyes running through his friends once again “I guess it is”

“Oh look! Dory is going to speak whale now!” Zack pointed to the TV, a big grin on his face.

“Yay! I love this part!” Trini clapped and Kimberly nodded in agreement, both girls turning to the TV with big smiles.

 _“Weeee neeed toooo fiiiiind hiiiis soooon”_ The taller girl began to dramatically talk along with the blue fish, bringing loud giggles from the other girl and the boys in the couch.

 _“Caaaaan yooooou giiive ussss direeeecctioooonns?”_ Zack joined, Jason going red with how much he was laughing and Billy smiled softly at it all.

“… I guess it really is kinda cool…”

\---

Ever since the Christmas episode long months back, all the parents made their mission to keep Trini away from her less-than-qualified parents as often as they could. Especially during the summer, where even the Scott family with their newborn baby girl made everything they could to keep the little girl.

And what bothered them the most was that they barely left the girl a full day with her parents all through summer and said parents didn’t seem bothered the slightest.

And what angered them the most was that, they knew the Gomez weren’t, by any shape, way or form, fitting parents but no matter how hard they looked, they couldn’t find a single _real_ proof.

Maddy felt like she getting very close, whatsoever, when the sleepovers became a constant thing during vacation. And she wasn’t sure just _how_ she felt about it.

Trini – now 6 year old but just as tiny and silent, and sweet and mysterious – refused any help when it came to bath time or changing and no matter how much Maddy knew she was probably trying to hide something, she couldn’t just invade the girl’s privacy or force her to undress or something like that. She did, however, take her with her own kids a few too many times to the beach and the pool all thorough the summer (Trini wore her two different one-pieces every single time and her long sleeved UV yellow shirt most of the times, even when she went as far as to offer one of Kim’s two piece a couple of times).

And another little thing that seemed the biggest red flag of them all.

_Nightmares._

The first one took place in the very middle of the summer, in the third sleepover that took place in the Hart household.

Trini had been nicely asleep for a moment, safe and sound cuddled up next to Kim on her warm bed (because she had a big bed and simply refused to let her friend sleep on a mattress on the floor when they always ended up in each-others mat during nap time everyday anyways) until she wasn’t.

Kimberly woke up to the sound of tiny whimpers and was confused a for full second until she recognized the warmth coming from her side as her best friend and simply reached out to bring her close, like she usually did during nap time.

But then her hand touched a shaking arm and a louder whimper sounded and the older girl was opening her eyes in worry in confusion into the night-light illuminated room. She looked at her friend and was immediately hit with an immense wave of concern for the smaller girl.

Trini had a face that could only be described as painful, eyelids closed tightly but her eyes moving widely under then and… Was she crying in her sleep? Was it even something possible?

Little Kim Hart was scared and confused as she sat up in her bed and gently began to shake the other girl into consciousness.

“Trini? Trin… Are you okay?” She asked in a small voice, not sure about what she was supposed to do and mentally debating if she should get up to get her mother.

Then Trini gasped awake, shooting up from bed in a sitting position so fast that she ended up head-butting her friend in the forehead with such force that had the two crying in pain and surprise.

Safe to say that it did the opposite of help.

“I’m sorry!” Trini cried in an uncharacteristic loud voice. It wasn’t anywhere near a scream, but it was probably the loudest Kim had ever heard from the younger’s voice “I didn’t… I’m… I’m sorry!”

“Trin… Trin, its okay” She tried to calm the other down, partly ignoring the sore spot she was gently rubbing on her forehead.

_“I’m sorry!”_

“Trini… What’s wrong? Why are you sorry? It’s okay!”

“I’m… I’m… So- _sorry_ ” Kimberly wasn’t sure of what was happening, but she was pretty sure that how fast her friend’s breathing was becoming wasn’t exactly a nice signal.

“Trin…”

“Girls?” Maddy’s voice sounded from the doorway before the light was suddenly switched on. Trini let out a tiny sound that resembled a chocked scream and backed away, straight into the edge of the bed and right into the floor head-first “Oh God”

Trini was crying, hands gripping the back of her head in pain, eyes shut tight, breathing fast while still attempting to be silent and pushing her body backwards until her back hit the wall.

And if Maddy wasn’t absolutely sure by now that something was seriously wrong with the girl, there was simply no denying now.

Kimberly was fully panicking the second her friend fell from her bed and completely unsure of what to do, looking at her mother with despair in her eyes. Maddy wasted no time into springing into action.

“Trini? Trini, sweetheart, it’s okay… You’re okay sweetie, it’s Aunt Maddy see? It’s only me and Kimmy sweetheart, you’re safe… You’re alright” She whispered soothingly, kneeling down in front of the crying child with all the gentleness she could muster, her eyes clouded with worry and absolute love for the terrified tiny thing before her.

She didn’t calm down at first, however, and soon was chocking into the sobs she was so desperately trying to hold back. Maddy tried very hard to cling into her professional doctor persona and not to let the panic raising in her chest to take control of her, but watching this specific child she cared so deeply about and spent the best part of the past year worrying about so painfully conforming all her fears and yet not giving her just what she needed to be able to do something about it was breaking every single one of her walls.

Thankfully, whoever, the little one seemed to, at some point, be able to cling onto one word that left her lips and one word only.

 _“Kimmy?_ ”

Now, Maddy was fully aware of the depths of the bound her daughter and the other girl went and, at that moment, was never quite so grateful for anything in her life before.

“Yes, sweetheart, Kimmy’s here too”

“I’m here T, I’m here” Kim said, at some point had left her bed and joined her mother kneeling on the floor in front of her friend, the face still looking more panicked than ever. “Everything is okay, Trini, please calm down… You’re scaring me”

Kim was crying too when Trini’s terrified dark eyes finally opened in a desperate search for something. And whatever it was she was looking for she either didn’t find or found exactly as soon as her eyes landed on the slightly older girl.

Her tiny shaking hands reached out and Maddy didn’t even had the time to process what has happening before her daughter had her arms full with a shaking and – still silent and gasping – crying Trini.

“It’s okay Trin… We’re okay…” Never in her eyes her little Kimberly looked so old as she did right now in her mother’s eyes and in-between her whole heart-break, Maddy felt pride swell into her chest.

“That’s right, sweetheart, we’ll all alright…” She whispered while sighing, waiting an extra second before she gathered both girls into her warm embrace “We are all fine but we gotta breathe now, alright?”

The following morning Ted found his wife on the couch when he woke up, a somber look on her face and one girl in each arm; a hint of a light bruise on Kimberly’s forehead and another in Trini’s while Maddy carefully held an ice-pack to the back of her head as both girls watched whatever show on the TV.

Ted had a hard time to convince his wife that, even thought he hated it just as much as she did, they had to eventually take the little girl back home.

They tried all day long, but got not a single word out of her and, this time, Maddy had actually managed to get the little girl to allow her to help her on the shower and she had mixed feelings when she found not a single bruise or suspicious mark on her tiny body.

_(“Can’t you at least pretend you’re happy when you see your own daughter after two days? If it’s not true, at least do it for her sake?” Maddy growled when the man she grew to despise more than anything in life took the asleep little girl from her gentle hold, in such a non-gentle way that she had blinked her eyes open for a second, giving Maddy a sad look before closing them again and allowing her father to take her away._

_“Anything you want to tell me, Doctor Hart?” June raised a dangerous eyebrow towards her “If you dislike me so much, perhaps I shouldn’t allow my daughter to spend so much time with you and that little… Girl of your”_

_She always prided herself for being a controlled person but how much she held herself back in that moment was a true statement about how much truly controlled she was, the fear of the couple actually forbid her or the others from seeing the girl being the only thing that gave her the strength to do so._

_“Not that you noticed or that I think you might later, but Trini hit her head last night” She grunted between her teeth “Nothing actually worrisome but if she complain from pain, just give her some child Tylenol and ice the back of her head”_

_“I know how to take care of my own daughter, Doctor, thank you very much”_

_“… Candace will be here to pick her up tomorrow right after lunch and we’ll all meet up at the park”_

_“Sure… Whatever)_

After that, even with no real evidence, Beverly decided to talk to her boss to try and find way they could to proof without an actual proof what they all knew that was happening but the Gomez had so firmly trained their daughter to hide.

And that was how Maddy found her doctor self with the companion of her cop husband Ted Hart, social worker best friend Beverly Scott and high school teacher close friend Karen Taylor sitting, one weak before school started again, with their children future first grade teacher.

Diana Prince quickly adopted that same dangerous glint in her eyes that all the other adults had whenever June and Patrick Gomez were as much as mentioned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really am not happy about this chapter. And I feel like I'm getting lost on the storyline. But I hope I can do better next chapter and the time jumps will lessen.
> 
> Give me your thoughts! Ideas, opinions, all is welcome!
> 
> Also, what are your toughts on the new teacher? u.u


	5. Back At School (New Teacher, Math Problems and Bad Parents)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First grade starts and Diana soon starts to notice somethings about a certain little girl.
> 
> Kim is protective, Zack is a goofy little thing with a hopeless crush, Billy is very smart, Jason likes math even though he's not all that good at it and Trini has a hard night at home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Thank you so much about all yout support, you guys are amazing!
> 
> I'm glad to see you all seem to like our new teacher very much u.u I kinda of love her too so...
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! And any ideas, opinions or anything else, lemme know. I love reading your thoughts ;)

“I miss nap time” It was only the first week back in school, they were only half way through it, when Zack decided that he – indeed – really missed nap time.

The five of them were sitting close to each other, slightly apart from the rest of the kids like they usually did. It was ‘reading time’ and since the other three were more than aware of Billy and Trini’s unease when it came to being around too many people, they had taken since the preview year into sitting on the fastest corner of the room during those times.

It was nice and it was calm and they had two huge bean bags, all to themselves.

Or more likely, Billy had one bean bag all to himself while Jason would sit on the floor, leaning his back against it while the girls shared the other and Zack sat on the floor between them. It worked for them like that, it was familiar and they loved it exactly that way.

“I think we all do” Kimberly sighed, her eyes lifting from the book she and Trini were sharing a few minutes ago and trailed them to said girl; sound asleep, all snuggled up against the bean bag and face half hidden by her hair and Kim’s side.

“Why is she always so tired?” Jason asked, also watching his smaller friend with wonder. Zack and Kimberly shrugged and Billy looked up from his book, a frown forming on his forehead as he went deep in thoughts.

“She really is always tired, isn’t she? I wonder…” He whispered, more to himself than anything.

“I don’t like her Mommy and her Daddy” Zack said with a cringe “… They kind of scare me? And they are never around… My Mom don’t like them either”

“My Mommy _hates_ them” Billy cringed at Kim’s choosing of words, but she didn’t even look his way, her gaze far away “… And my Mommy always like everyone so… I don’t think she sleeps much at home? And she has really scary bad dream too sometimes… She never tells me what they are about though…”

“… I hate bad dreams” Jason muttered and received twin grunts of agreement from Kim and Zack a silent nod and deeper frown from Billy.

Unknowingly by the children, their teacher was hovering around them, silently listening to their conversation while making mental notes about it. And it was only when they grew silent for longer than a minute, focusing back on their books, that she decided to make her presence known.

She came closer, a gentle smile on her face, and slowly knelled down next to the girls’ beanbag. Kimberly tensed up right away, her face hardening towards the woman while Zack looked up with a face that could only be described as ‘heart-eyes’.

It was quite safe to say that the little boy had gotten over his old crush on their preview teacher. Also safe so say he had something about teachers… Or pretty older women in general.

“Hey guys, need any help?” Diana asked gently, her eyes lingering on the sleeping girl for a bit longer; which didn’t go unnoticed by her protective best friend.

“Ms. Prince…” Zack sighed dreamily, successfully grabbing her attention and an amused smile from her.

“Don’t be upset at her” Kimberly cut Zack – who was fairly upset when the teacher attention left him in favor of her – and the woman raised a curious brow at her “… She’s tired and she didn’t mean to fall asleep… Please don’t send her a note”

Diana studied the scene before her.

All the awakened four kids were looking at her now, their expression apprehensive and she found the care for their friend written in their eyes all kinds of adorable.

She smiled gently at them, putting three out of four of them at ease and then reached out to brush some hair away from the sleeping girl’s face, smile growing even softer when the little girl seemed to sigh contently in her sleep at the contact.

“You _really_ aren’t supposed to sleep during reading time” She started softly, her gaze lifting from Trini and going pointy at the still tense little girl next to her “… But I saw how tired Trini looked earlier… As long as it doesn’t become a habit, I think I can let this one slide…”

Finally Kimberly relaxed, a sigh leaving her lips and her shoulders visibly melting its tension. So did Jason’s. She looked around the children, honestly intrigued at how much they seemed to care – not only about the little one – but for all one another.

How in tune they all seemed to be when it came to each other.

It was something interesting – at the very least – and she was quite sure it was something they were mostly likely to have for the rest of their lives. Or, at least she hoped so.

“Thank you, Ms. Prince” Billy said sincerely and she nodded before silently standing up.

“Just don’t tell the others… And know you can come to me for anything, anytime alright?”

“Sure Ms. Prince” “Thank you Ms. Prince” Jason and Kimberly answered at the same time and she turned on her heels, about to go check on the other children.

_“… She keeps getting more and more perfect….”_ Was Zack’s whisper that got her masking her chuckle under her breath as she walked away from the unique little group.

\---

After reading time, it was math time other than Billy, none of the kids looked particularly happy about that.

Trini still looked tired, albeit less now than she did on the beginning of the day, and remained awake and with a tiny frown on her face as Diana taught the class about addition on the whiteboard with a smile on her face and her ever present patience.

Then she handed out a simple worksheet with little problems for the kids and left them to work, going around the tables to help whoever needed her.

“Those aren’t so hard” Jason concluded happily while going through his little problems. Next to him, Billy looked up from his paper to peek at his and tilted his head to the side slightly.

“Yeah, they aren’t… But 3 plus 2 isn’t 6, Jase”

“… Aw man” The boy whined, his smile leaving his face and Zack chuckled from his place on the other side of him with Trini on his other side.

“I like math!” Kim decided, going through her sheet almost as fast as Billy had, sitting between the boy and Trini.

“It hurts my head” Zack said honestly, looking up from his sheet and smiling “But I guess it is kinda of fun”

“… 3 plus 2 is 5, right?” Jason asked, now sounding slightly unsure. However, a smile formed on his lips and a light red appeared on his cheeks when Billy beamed at him, clapping happily and nodding.

“Yes! It is! Nice job Jason!”

“What about you, T?” Zack asked, turning to his friend who was unusually quiet – more so than usual. Trini has a distressed look on her face, gripping her pencil with her whole first while she stared at her blank sheet with so much concentration.

“Trin?” Kim nudged her friend gently when the little girl didn’t even hear Zack. Trini jumped so suddenly that Kim’s eyes went wide with surprise “Whoa, you okay?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you okay?” Jason repeated, eyeing Trini carefully “You look upset”

Trini sighed loudly, her shoulders dropping sadly as she dragged her hands off the table and rested them on her lap, pencil still gripped tightly on her whole fist and the long sleeves of her favorite yellow jumper almost covering her hands. She kept her eyes trained on her lap, refusing to look up at her friends and tears of embarrassment burned into them.

“I… I can’t… I can’t do it” She whispered finally, gently playing with the pencil in her hand.

“That’s okay! We can help you! Come ‘ere” Gentle, bubbly, caring little Kim, always smiling and bouncing up and down on spot. She slid her chair closer to her friend and took a look at her very much empty sheet. She immediately began to try explaining the problems to her friend with a low, gentle voice while pointing at the numbers on the sheet.

Trini was soon looking even more distressed than before and the sadness in her eyes kept growing.

“I can’t, Kimmy” Trini whispered with a sad sigh after a few minutes of Kimberly trying to help her while Billy helped the boys with their sheets, having finished his own long minutes ago. “I don’t ‘derstand… ‘M stupid…”

“No! You are _not_ ” After the whole year she has known the smaller girl, Kim had grown fairly used to the little girl talking low about herself and it angered her every time.

Her best friend was perfect and no one was allowed to say otherwise.

Not even Trini herself.

“And stop saying this word; you know my Mommy don’t like it” She completed softer, eyes glued on the sheet as she began to scribble on it.

“… You say it all the time…” Trini murmured under her breath and Kim looked up, a amused glint in her eyes.

“I do”

“Hey guys” Ms. Prince greeted, knelling between Zack’s and Trini’s chairs, immediacy gaining the attention of all the kids.

And a very goof grin from one Zack Taylor.

“Hi Ms. Prince! I finished my whole sheet, look!” He puffed his little chest proudly and Diana had to bit back her chuckle, especially after seeing Jason roll his eyes and Kim huffed annoyed.

She is very well aware that she shouldn’t have favorites, but this little group was just… Something else.

“Great job, champ!” She praised after scanning her eyes through the sheet. While Zack definitely still needed spend a little more time practicing his calligraphy and had to learn how to be more organized and neater, his answers were all correct.

And he was beaming.

_(He discreetly leaned over Jason to thank Billy when Diana’s attention shifted to the girls’ sheet)_

“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” The teacher asked softly with a small frown when she saw Trini’s empty sheet – save from a few scribbles from Kim and a small doddle on the bottom of the page – and the utterly sad and slightly anxious look on the little girl’s face.

“ _… Can’t do it…_ ” She murmured, eyes refusing to look up at the woman and an even lower mumble that sounded something like an apology following it.

“Hey, enough with the sad face, will we?” Diana whispered gently, fingers brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes lightly and concern gripping her chest at the way the girl tensed subtly at the gesture “Can you tell me why you can’t do it?”

“… Cuz is too hard…” Trini whispered again – she rarely ever spoke any louder, unless she was alone with her friends in a save envelopment and, sometimes, with the Harts.

“Hm… It kinda is, isn’t it?” Diana asked sympathetically “Tell you guys what” She said, now looking up at the other four “Since you’re all already done with your work, why don’t you guys go talk for a little bit on that corner you like so much until it’s time for lunch? Just don’t be too loud, alright?”

“Sweet!” Zack exclaimed, out of his seat and running towards the corner on the back of the room by the bookcase, all but throwing himself on one of the bean-bags, earning a few glares from other kids that were also engaged in other activities after finishing their sheets.

“Oh, but it’s not reading time? Is it- is it reading time again, Jason? Can we read, now? How come we can read when it’s math class?” Billy looked a bit lost, a bit taken off his zone of comfort.

“Math class is done for now, sweetie. I’m just letting you do something else for a little while before lunch, you don’t have to if you don’t want too” Diana said gently and Billy opened and closed his mouth for a minute.

“Oh, I guess its fine then? Come on Jason!” And he was out of his seat, Jason close behind him.

Then Kim went to get up from her seat, her hand firmly wrapped around Trini’s while full intending on dragging her with her.

“Kim? Sweetheart, why don’t you leave Trini here with me for a little bit, huh?” The skeptical look on the taller kid’s eyes said more than words could. Talk about expressive eyes. “I promise she’ll be just fine and will be with you in a minute”

Apparently, her looks weren’t the only thing little Kimberly took after her mother because the protective/warning glare she was giving her at that moment was like a mirror of the look in one Dr. Maddy Hart’s face when, just a couple weeks ago, she had talked to her for hours about her suspects about little Trini Gomez’s home life.

Kim held her gaze for a moment until she turned around, kissed Trini on the cheek while giving her hand a reassuring squeeze and ran, right into ‘hers and Trini’s’ bean bag and essentially pushing Zack out of it.

“Hey” Diana called quietly when Trini’s eyes remained on her friends for a long moment. She took a seat on the small chair Kim had just got up from and smiled when shy eyes met her face “Hi there”

“… Hi…” Trini bit her bottom lip and looked down at her sheet, a deep frown on her face.

“So…” Diana cleared her throat, leaning forwards slightly and using a long finger to point at one of the first problems on the sheet “We got 2 apples in one hand and 2 on the other. Together, how many apples we have?”

“I… I…” Trini shuttered after a long moment of silence. Her grip on her pencil going so tight that her knuckles went white and the alarming rate her anxiety was building was visible on her wet big brown eyes. She closed them tight and shook her head “I dun’…”

“Hey, hey” Diana soothed, her other hand gently coming to rub the girl’s back gently. Trini jumped, wide eyes staring at Diana in alarm that screamed everything that Maddy had reported to her.

Something was serious wrong with this little girl.

“I’m _sorry_ ” She whimpered and all Diana wants to do was wrap her in a tight hug.

She just kept rubbing gently circles on her back instead, sliding slightly closer to the 6 year old and cooing softly until she relaxed slightly.

“You okay, sweetheart?” She asked after a moment and Trini nodded quickly, albeit still shaken and not looking ‘okay’ at all “… Are you sure?” Another nod. Diana decided to let it slide and let her hand slip from the girl’s back, gently grabbing the pencil from her and taking both of her tiny hands, one in each of her much bigger ones “Let’s try something else alright? Can you show me two fingers please Trini?”

Trini, still biting her bottom lip, looked at her hands with narrowed eyes of concentration. Then two fingers went up on her right hand and her unsure eyes searched the teacher’s face. Diana hummed in approval and smiled.

“Very good. Can you now show me two fingers on your other hand?” Slow, patient and caring. Diana waited, gently tapping Trini’s left wrist with her index finger until two fingers also went up in there “That’s right sweetie, and now, why don’t you count those for me huh?”

“Hmm…” Trini looked like she was really struggling to concentrate, eyes narrowing even further and Diana was making mental notes the whole time “One… Two… Three… Four?”

“That’s it, sweetheart!” The woman prized, a beaming smile on her face when Trini’s eyes found her once again “So, 2 plus 2 is…”

“… 4?”

“That’s right!” Diana clapped happily and her heart melted when a big smile appeared on Trini’s face, exposing the adorable little gap between her two front teeth.

“I did it?”

“Yes, you did! I’m so proud of you! Now, come on, let’s write down our answer, shall we?” She said, offering Trini back her pencil and watching the way she gripped it with her whole first once again.

When lunchtime rolled around, Diana organized everything and helped all the kids with their lunchbox while Trini sat with her friends.

But instead of going out to play during recess on the playground and going to eat her own lunch, Trini and Diana spent the whole time working on finishing her math sheet.

It was done and all correct before the bell rang.

Trini got a sticker and a beaming smile on her face for the rest of the day.

And Diana went home with a warm feeling on her chest after, when the dismiss bell rang, Trini trailed back behind her friends, letting go from Jason’s hand and with a nervous look on her face she gave her legs a quick hug before running off to where Billy and Candace were waiting for her, the woman holding a surprised smile on her face.

\---

At the tender age of six and after a full year attending the school, little Trinity Marie Gomez knew that there was something… Wrong with the way things worked on her house.

She wasn’t quite aware of that before, when she didn’t go to school, didn’t have friends or any kind of contact with the world outside her family whatsoever.

She was confused and more than a little scared when Kindergarten started and four other little people came along and changed pretty much everything she ever knew. Terrified couldn’t even describe how she was when they brought her into their houses – into their families – and slowly showed her that, what was always considered so normal for her maybe – maybe – wasn’t so normal at all?

She was still confused though and spent a large amount of time everyday staring at her wall, questions and more questions without answers running through her young mind in her silence.

When she saw Billy’s mom everyday waiting by the entrance of school with a big smile on her face as she waited for Trini and her son, she wondered if behind close doors when no one could see, she still smiled like that at Billy; like she was so happy in simply seeing him. Or if she, just like her Mamá would do, would leave him alone and snap whenever he was making any kind of annoying sound.

_(Such as speaking or… Making any noise at all in general)_

When she watched Jason’s dad pick him up and throw him in the air, laughing loudly and celebrating with pride whenever he won the soccer games she tagged along, she wondered if, when no one was watching, maybe his grip would get tighter and Jason’s joyful laugh would be replaced by whimpers, like the sounds she would make when her Papi’s fingers squeezed her.

_(She hated when he would shake her, his loud voice confusing her racing mind)_

When Zack’s mom taught them how to play chess and other board games whenever they all came over, she wondered if at some point her gentle scold with nice words would became loud and violent or if she would call him names, like her parents would when she did something she wasn’t supposed to.

_(Sometimes, she wasn’t really sure of what exactly she did, but she was sure she must have done something)_

When Kimberly would run to her parents arms and hug them, whenever she saw them, she wondered if they still held her like that when no one was around, or if Kim ever _didn’t want_ her Daddy to touch her, like she most of times didn’t want her Papi to touch her.

_(In reality, she never wanted her Papi to touch her because his touch was always either painful of uncomfortable in ways she couldn’t understand)_

Most of all, she wondered if, when they were bad, they would also have to spend the whole night on a tiny dark closed, not being allowed to have dinner or eat anything at all until lunch at school.

And, if they were really bad, they would end up with a nasty bruise where their clothes could cover?

_(It didn’t happen often, Trini always made her absolutely best not to be bad, but sometimes she **still** wasn’t good enough)_

She wondered and wondered and sometimes she wanted to voice her curiosity and ask her friends (almost did ask Kim more than a couple times) but her parents’ voices on her mind were loud and clear.

_(“What happens at our home, stays in our home, just like what happens at other people’s home, stays at other people’s home. We don’t speak and they don’t speak; that’s how things supposed to go. So don’t speak or you’ll be locked on the closet for a whole week”)_

So speak she didn’t. Not even a single word about the things that happened at home, barely ever even anything about her parents themselves _(even when her Aunt Maddy would ask questions with that sweet tone of her and her gentle face)._

However, at some point during that year – the best of her short life so far – she began to hate being home and was glad that she was barely ever there, spending most of her days during the week at school and always somewhere with her friends on the weekends.

And summer was amazing. She spent so much time not at home that, whenever she was at home, it was easy to hide and pretend she wasn’t even there with such perfection that she was sure her parents really didn’t notice her there. And she was glad for that.

However, another thing that she knew very well at this point was that everything good came to an end at some point. And while she was happy to go back at school, happy in meet her new teacher _(who was all sorts of nice and amazing and she was growing attached alarming fast)_ , she was also sad and scared about being home most days at least half of the day.

The first week went by smoothly, however, and she was very glad for that. The weekend was also very nice, spending the whole Saturday at the Cranston residence with Billy and Zack while Aunt Karen worked and the Sunday at the Harts, watching movies and riding her bike with Kim.

But then at Monday her Mamá was waiting for her when the bell rang in front of school, shaking hands with the school’s counselor and the small twitch on the corner of her tight smile made Trini literally stop on her tracks, her hand sipping from Kim’s hold.

Ms. Prince looked tense when she waved them goodbye and her eyes were glued on Trini when June took her hand; her hold tight and so different than when her friends parents’ when she was with them outside or Diana’s when she was the first on the line (which for some reason she kept being all through the week)

She knew tonight was going to be bad; as in, bad in a level that hasn’t been in a while now, even though she had no idea why.

She got her answer as soon as her Mamá literally pushed her inside the house, slamming the front door close behind her after a long, tense and deadly silent car ride back home.

“ _Pendeja estúpida!_ ” Her mother was screaming, slapping the back of her head with such force that she stumbled forwards, her backpack fell from her shoulders (the same she used last year, she was the only one of her friends not to get a new one) and her little hands shot up to cover the sore spot on her head, wide confused eyes looking up at the woman in fear “¿qué hice para merecer una hija tan tonta? Why are you like this, Trinity? Why can’t you just be fucking normal?”

June huffed and literally pushed her daughter to the floor as she walked past her, murmuring curses that shifted between English and Spanish faster than either she could process. She grabbed the phone from the table and began to dial fast, face hardened and jaw sat tight.

All while little Trini slowly pushed herself out of the floor with frightened eyes glued in her.

But the lack of surprise on her face was alarming; like, even though she was terrified, she was no strange to this situation.

She simply grabbed her backpack again, made her way to the corner near the door, took off her worn out sneakers, putting them neatly on their right place and turned back around, fully intending to head down the hallway to her little room to start trying to do her homework and spend the rest of the day playing quietly with her toys and hoping to just be left alone.

Her backpack being pulled roughly stopped her in her tracks; the bag ended up on the floor yet again and she was surprised she managed to stay on her feet.

“Do you know why I was at your stupid school, Trinity? Why I had to leave my fucking work to speak with that estúpida puta counselor?” June was leaning down slightly, hovering over her daughter while gripping her thin arm tightly.

Trini bit down on her bottom lip hard, eyes searching her mother’s face uncertainty of what to do. She was no stranger to her mother yelling questions at her only to yell even louder when she as much a made a peep to try and answer her.

When June’s other hand came up to grip her other arm, even harder, and shook her violently, her head began to throb and tears began to burn in her eyes.

“Respóndame, Trinity!”

“Hm… N-no Mamá… I dun’ ‘no...” She chocked out, eyes growing even wetter when June scoffed, the look of disdain on her face hurting her daughter even more than her tight grip ever could.

“Of course you don’t… You never know anything and you know why?” June growled, leaning down closer to Trini’s face, her dark eyes glowing with a dangerous glint in them “Porque eres _estúpida_ ”

As she spitted her last word, with so much hatred and disgust, she began to drag her daughter towards the tiny little closet by the kitchen, her grip growing even tighter as she physically lifted the girl from the floor when she began to struggle the second she realized where she was being dragged at.

“Mamá… _Mamá_ , I’m sorry, please… Please _don_ ’” Trini was crying now, being pushed into the tiny space she hated so much.

The anger getting the better of her, June was ever rasher than she usually was as she literally threw her daughter inside, as if she was nothing but a garbage bag.

Trini gasped, the air leaving her lungs for a long moment from the impact of her back against the hard wooden wall and her chin trembled violently, trying hard not to make another sound as she knew it would only make things worse.

“You’ll stay in there until your father comes home; we’ll see what he has to say about this _dyslexia_ porcaria” She spit, disgust in her eyes as she eyed her terrified and hurt daughter for a moment longer “ _maldita vergüenza_ ”

And she slammed the door shut, leaving the crying little girl clinging to the back of her head in the tiny dark space.

\---

The only physical injuries she had on the following morning where the dark bruises at the shape of her mother’s fingers on her upper arms and a slightly lighter one on the length of her back from when her Papi threw her back (even harder) on the closet.

A big bump was on the back of her head as well, but you also wouldn’t see under her hair.

But the only real physical evidence of the real harm done to her was on the dark shades under her eyes.

The ones that were there every time she spent the entire night engulfed in nothing but darkness and fear on the tiny closet, unable to get anymore than a few minutes of sleep from time to time.

And when the door of the closet was unlocked in the early morning, Trini was silent as she made her way to the bathroom, took a quick shower, got dressed (in worn out jeans and long sleeves) and grabbed the lunchbox that was ready and waiting for her on the kitchen table on her way to the couch on the living-room.

She grabbed her sneakers from their place on the corner, spent a long time trying to tie its lace (she couldn’t do it right and Kim or Billy would probably fix it for her at school) and waited in complete silence until she heard the sound of honk in front of her house.

She ran outside, closing the door behind her and ignoring the slight pain from her backpack against the bruise on her back as she jumped inside Billy’s car with his mom’s help.

She smiled the same the same shy smile she did everyday and paid close attention on everything Billy rambled about all the way to school.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thank you Irrelevant_Opinion for the amazing idea you gave me! (am I the only one seing at irony in this? u.u) but seriously, thanks. Hope you like it ;)
> 
> So, any ideas, sugestions, anything, lemme know. I really love reading all of your comments Xx


	6. Breakdowns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids find out Trini's hurt and want to tell their teacher. She doesn't want them to. Billy has a breakdown and so does Trini.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! First of all, I’d like to apologize for how long it took me for update. I’m really sorry.  
> Second of all, I’d like to say that I’m not too sure about this chapter. So, just in case it sucks… I’m sorry,  
> Third of all, for the ones of you who didn’t know, I have a new story. Is called ‘Family Bliss’ and I’m having an amazing time writing it! Is a much lighter story – or at least was supposed to be, but me being my usual drama queen self already found a way to make my little Trin suffer – and is quite the opposite of this one. The gang is all grown up, starting their own families and trying to survive on the grown up world while still being family to each other. The first chapter isn’t all that good, but I promise, it gets better after the second! Give it a try, if you like my writing and endless fluff, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Also, the couple I focus more on is Trimberly because… Well, is Trimberly u.u  
> So… Yeah, that’s all. So, now to the chapter. Don’t forget to leave your comment, your feedback keeps me going! Ideas and suggestions are always welcome. Enjoy!

Another week went by smoothly for four out of the five little friends.

 

Not so much for the littlest one of them.

 

Meanwhile things seemed to be improving at school for Trini, now that she had Mrs. Prince spending extra time with her, patiently explaining things to her while everyone else worked on their activities or played around, things at home were becoming gradually worse.

 

She spent a total of three nights locked into the tiny closet before weekend rolled around; and those were the days she counted as the less horrible ones. On those days, where her mother seemed to be upset enough to not want to even look at her, she would be dragged and thrown in the small cubicle as soon as she arrived home. It was awful, boring to the point of tears and, most of all, scary. Sometimes, if she looked around for long enough, Trini felt like the walls were slowly closing around her, crushing her and leaving her unable to breathe. The panic within her grew so deep at some point of Thursday evening that she eventually passed out. She was very confused when she woke up, already at the following morning when the door was being unlocked, wondering how she managed to sleep though the whole night when she usually never did.

 

Wednesday and Friday, however, were the worst in her opinion. Those were the days she didn’t get shoved into the closet and slept at her own bed. Well, she did sleep at Wednesday, not so much at Friday, that was the day her Papá had his friends over and they were too noisy for her to even try to fall asleep.

 

Those were also the days she got yelled at the most and a couple more bruises here and there.

 

The week, however, no matter how bad it was, proofed to be nothing near to how her weekend went.

 

\---

 

Kimberly was upset the whole weekend; it was the first in a while where she didn’t get to see her best friend at all. So she made sure she and Josh were up extra early at Monday so they could go to school early. _(Josh whined the whole time, but who cares?)_

She slipped into her classroom, for the first time since she could remember before even the teacher arrived, and set her backpack on its rightful place. She then sat down on her favorite beanbag at the very back of the classroom and grabbed one of the books from the bookcase, deciding that it would be the best way to pass time before her friends arrived.

 

It didn’t take long, a few other kids had already arrived, when Kim looked up from her book and saw Billy walking through the door. A small frown appeared on her face, however, when she noticed his ever present beaming smile wasn’t there. She watched as he went to put his backpack away, Trini trailing behind him with downcast eyes.

 

After making sure his bag was as neat as he liked, on the exact spot he liked, Billy turned to help Trini with hers, the little girl slipping her left arm from the strap with extra care under the concerned gaze of her friend. Billy looked up, like he could feel the eyes on him and smiled a genuine smile when he spotted Kim on their spot. He turned to Trini while setting her backpack down next to his for her and said something to her – probably letting her know that Kim was already there, for once.

 

Big brown eyes lifted from their long stare at the ground and found a lighter pair already looking back at her. They didn’t light up like they usually did and the little girl didn’t smile like she usually did. But she didn’t hesitate in making a beeline to the open arms waiting for her, like she usually didn’t.

 

Kimberly smiled, content now standing up with her best friend wrapping her right arm around her middle in a gentle hug, her head coming to rest on her shoulder like it usually did. But when she went to wrap her arms around her in return, worry shoot up her small body.

 

Because Trini flinched, almost jumping out of her arms and _yelped_.

 

The looked down in concern but Trini was already avoiding her eyes, staring intently at her sneakers. Her demeanor reminded Kim a little of the day they first met, over a year ago on the first day of kindergarten.

 

“Trin?” The taller little girl whispered, glad that Trini hadn’t pulled away too much and her right hand was within reach. She took a hold of it gently and was glad that the other girl didn’t pull away “… Are you okay?”

 

“She hurt her arm” Billy, who had silently approached at some point, supplied for her in a very uncharacteristic small voice. His face also spotted an unusual frown in it as he stared solemnly at the girl in subject.

 

“What?” Kimberly exclaimed in concern, pulling the hand in her own and proceeding to lift the yellow long sleeve, looking for any mark on the tanned skin, despite the other’s weak protests.

 

“The other arm” Billy added, nodding to where Trini was painfully holding her left arm against her stomach. She took a startled step back before Kim could even reach for it, gaining a glare for her efforts “… She didn’t tell me though. And she didn’t let me tell my mom…  I think she hurt it when she went to jump out of my mom’s car because she was holding it and cried a little bit...  And I don’t think she feels like talking today…”

 

“Hey guys!” Jason’s voice chipped from behind the three kids but, for once, not even Billy turned to greet him.

 

“Trini! Are you hurt? Is your arm hurting? Do you think you really hurt it? Why won’t you let me see it, let me see it!” Kim demanded, her voice getting that annoying tone it always got when she wanted something but wasn’t getting her way _(the tone that always got Josh calling her spoiled brat, even though he got the exact same tone when_ he _wasn’t getting his way)_

“Trini’s hurt?” Jason worried, getting into the small circle between Billy and Kim, looking between his friends in worry and confusion.

 

“We’re pretty sure her arm is hurt” Billy nodded, eyes still glued on his friend who seemed to be folding into her self in a way he had never seem before “… But she’s not talking. She won’t let us see either. Didn’t let me tell my mom”

 

“Maybe we should tell Mrs. Prince?” Jason suggested, waving his head towards the general direction of the teacher’s desk where she was putting down her things, having just arrived at the same time as he did.

 

His suggestion brought a reaction out of Trini. Not the one they expected, though.

 

She finally looked up, eyes wide and pleading and shook her head quickly, so quickly it looked almost frenetic. She started nibbling on her bottom lip, gaze darting from one of her friends to the other, lingering a little longer at Kim, meeting her eyes in one of their many silent conversations.

 

Kim gave a heavy sigh and took one step forwards, trying to brush off the way Trini visibly tensed up at the sudden movement. Crocking her head to the side slightly, she watched their teacher for a moment, averting her eyes back Trini when Mrs. Prince lifted her head and landed her dark eyes on them.

 

“… My mommy always tells me we have to tell an adult when we get hurt” Kim whispered, a wave of sadness washing over her when Trini’s eyes dropped to the floor again. She reached out, grabbing her good hand and squeezed gently.

 

“Why you don’t want to tell, Trin?” Jason asked in utter confusion. Whenever he got hurt, even when he would pretend it didn’t hurt to his friends, he would run to the nearest adult for help. Adults always knew how to make things better when you got hurt and they never made fun of you for looking for help. Not wanting to tell an adult you’re hurt, it just didn’t make sense to the little boy.

 

Trini offered a tiny shrug as an answer to Jason’s question. Her head was spinning, her heart beating fast and her parents’ words going on repeat on her head. She had already made one mistake, her friends knew she was hurt, she couldn’t make another mistake. She couldn’t let any adult know and she couldn’t tell her friends why.

 

She wanted to cry. And maybe a long nice nap too. Yeah, a nap sounded amazing right about now.

 

“I don’t understand either” Billy scratched his head, having similar silent questions to Jason’s “… And my mom always tells me too that whenever I get hurt I should go to a responsible adult and tell them. But my dad also says that forcing someone to do anything they don’t want to, is wrong. So, if Trini really doesn’t want to tell, we can’t force her. Plus, if isn’t really bad, like a small bruise or scratch, there’s no really need to?”

 

“Is it bad, Trin?” Jason took one step closer, stopping slightly behind Kimberly. Trini immediately shook her head, raising her eyes again but not making eye contact with anyone.

 

“Can we see then?” Kim raised a suspicious eyebrow and nearly groaned in frustration when Trini shook her head. “Why?”

 

“And why you’re not talking? I know you don’t like talking all the time, but why?” Jason pushed, crossing his arms above his chest, his concerned gaze burning into Trini as much as Kim’s frustrated one.

 

The smaller girl felt like she was suddenly back on her tiny closet, feeling the walls closing around her while her whole body ached and screamed in white hot pain. She felt like her lungs were slowly stopping working and there wasn’t enough air around her.

 

“Good morning guys, what’s going on in here?”

 

The smooth voice that sounded like what she always imagined an angel would sound like brought back from her half panicked stated and she felt her shoulders sagging in relief.

 

That lasted about one second before she tensed again, eyes widening as they snapped around to find the dark eyes of her kind teacher much more near than she first anticipated.

 

Diana studied the four children, taking in their startled appearance for apparently not hearing her approaching. Kim’s eyes locked with her for only a quick moment before they were back on Trini while the other three kept staring frozen at her. Billy looking deep in thoughts, Jason looking torn and Trini looking downright terrified.

 

“Oh, Mrs. Prince!” Billy’s loud voice grabbed her attention and she looked at him, opening a gentle smile at his sudden enthusiasm “Are we going to do more addiction today? We have math today, I checked my schedule – twice – are we doing more math problems?”

 

There was something off about him. Like, for once, he wasn’t being genuine about his over-enthusiasm about something small like mathematics. And the way his eyes drifted back to Trini for a spilt second gave him away. Diana almost raised a brow but forced her smile to stay in place.

 

“Of course, Bill. Practice makes perfect, right?” At Billy’s nod she returned her eyes to Trini, frowning ever so slightly at the girl who was now glaring holes at the floor. She bent down, close enough so she was practically right in front to the two small girls. She lifted her hand and rested it gently on the small Latina’s upper arm, frown deepening when the girl didn’t lift her gaze and visibly flinched away from her touch “… Trini, sweetie…”

 

**_Triiim_ **

****

“Hi guys! Oh, good morning Mrs. Prince”

 

Diana sighed, cursing internally as all the kids began to walk to their seats, the ones who were still outside playing, running inside among a very hurried Zack Taylor – who surely had just arrived, just in time not to be late.

 

For once it was Trini who dragged Kim away, walking past her teacher with impressive speed on her tiny legs and straight to the group usual little table and plopping down at her seat without raising her eyes for a single second.

 

Diana slowly stood up, watching Billy and Jason also head for their table and ruffed Zack’s hair gently, a genuine smile forming on her lips at the goofy grin her gave her before running to put his backpack away and ran back to the last empty seat on his friends’ table.

 

She walked to the front of the class, eyes remaining on the group’s table, watching as the kids kept trying to talk something with Trini but she ignored them.

 

When all the kids took their seats she finally averted her eyes and forced her best smile, wishing her students a cheerful good morning and proceed with the Monday routine to ask the class who wanted to share what they did on their weekend.

 

She didn’t miss how, as the class started, Trini didn’t sit comfortably on her chair, fidgeted and shifted a lot more than usual and kept her left arm still in her lap.

 

\---

 

As the morning went on, Trini was unusually distracted.

 

Usually she had trouble focusing but she always tried her very best. Not today though. Her focus was somewhere else.

 

After about an hour since she accidently hit her arm jumping out from Billy’s mom’s car, it had stopped hurting so bad. Just a constant dull ache that turned into blinding pain whenever she tired to move her wrist, but no longer hurt when she moved her arm or wiggled her fingers.

 

Her eyes lifted up in surprise when she felt a gentle nudge on her right arm and her shoulder relaxed when she found Kim looking at her with a small smile, standing up with one hand held out to her. She also quickly noticed the boys’ abstinence.

 

“It’s reading time. Come on”

 

Trini smiled back, ignoring the pounding in her head and accepted Kim’s hand in her own. She allowed herself do be dragged like she always did and sat down next to her best friend on their shared bean-bag without much complain.

 

Of course she nearly cried when she sat down on the soft bean and it came in contact with ever inch of her back.

 

She swallowed the lump in her throat and released Kim’s hand, sliding down until she was sitting on the floor with Zack and Jason instead, making she her back didn’t make contact with anything.

 

Zack looked confused and Kim looked hurt. She didn’t see it however, focusing instead on Billy as he ran his eyes through the books on the little bookcase by their seats. Jason raised a brow but also didn’t say anything.

 

“Billy, can you finish reading the book you started last week for us?” Zack required with a hopeful smile. He had spent his whole weekend wondering about the end of the book.

 

Billy smiled and nodded happily, soon finding the book in subject; exactly where he had put it after Friday’s reading time.

 

It wasn’t an unusual occurrence; since all the kids were still on the beginning stages of learning how to read while Billy had already mastered the skill by the time he was 4, sometimes instead of each of them grabbing a book to read on their own, Billy just grabbed one everyone agreed on and read it to them; just loud enough only for his friends to hear and not to interrupt the other children around the room.

 

Of course if defeated the whole propose of reading time for the other four, but since it wasn’t something that happened every day (more likely once or twice a week), Diana just left them be. Partly because she thought it was a good thing not only for Billy, but also because she didn’t have the heart to interrupt such an adorable scene.

 

Billy quickly found the page he had stopped and started reading.

 

Trini was soon absorbed into the story; she didn’t notice Kim sliding out of the bean-bag until she was sitting close to her right and her hand found her own once again.

 

She relaxed automatically, laying her head against the other’s shoulder and sighing in contentment when her cheek rested gently against the top of her head.

 

Diana watched from afar after she helped another couple of kids with their readings;

 

Billy completely engrossed on the story he was reading with impressive ease, Jason’s eyes following every one of his little movements with careful eyes and a small smile on his lips, Zack with a big grin on his face, eyes closed and half laying with his back against Billy’s bean-bag, looking like he was picturing every little detail of the story being told while the girls also listened on, both looking more relaxed than they had earlier on the day as they cuddled together.

 

Every day she found a new reason to be fascinated by the little unusual gang.

 

She smiled and went to help another student in need of assistance.

 

\---

 

“Tag, you’re it!”

 

Billy looked around confused for a moment, his expression blank as he stared at a smirking Zack – who was backing up from him slowly. Then he dropped his head to the side, brown furrowing.

 

“Are we playing tag?”

 

Zack shrugged and took off running around the playground.

 

“We are now” Kimberly smirked, getting up from the sandbox, wiping the dirt away from her clothes and took off running as well. Jason shook his head and also stood up, wiping his hands on his worn out jeans.

 

“Alright, I’m it!” He declared and Trini opened a small smile, standing nearby the place Zack had ran to, still holding her arm and not looking anything like her usual self. Jason got ready to chase his friends until he noticed Billy still in the same place, still looking confused. A small smile tugged on the corner of his lips “Billy?”

 

“Hm…? Oh. Oh! That’s when I’m supposed to run away right? Right… Right!” The little boy nodded to himself and turned on his heels, ready to take off running.

 

Only to collide hard with something and fall back on his butt.

 

“Watch where you going, Billy _Cramstons_ ” A boy from third grade grumbled. He looked at the little boy on the floor – who was still looking up with shock – and shook his head in disgust, turning in his heels and walking away murmuring something under his breath.

 

“Billy! Billy!” Jason was on his knees next to his friend in an instant, hands hovering above him in panic for a moment before he gripped his arms tightly “Are you okay, are you hurt?”

 

“Billy! What happened?” Kimberly was by their side in a blink of an eye, being the fast little thing she was, and was also on her knees, hands touching her friend while looking for harm “Did he push you? Do I need to call Josh? Or the teacher?”

 

“I’ll call Mrs. Prince” Zack declared before he could even reach his friends and was running away before anyone could protest, yelling his teacher’s name on the top of his lungs along the way.

 

“He okay?” Trini whispered, anxious eyes staring at her silent friend as she stood directly behind a kneeling Kim, her fingers had found its way to grip the material of her white shirt tightly with her good hand. The older girl startled for a moment at hearing the other’s voice for the first time during the day.

 

“Billy! Billy, answer us!” Jason panicked.

 

Billy was overwhelmed.

 

Still shocked and shaken up by the unforeseen turn of events, eyes wide and face blank.

 

He tried to speak, really did, but the hands touching him, seemly coming from everywhere where physically making it hard for him to breathe and his head was spinning.

 

His hands shot up to cover his ears and his eyelids closed tightly, not being able to handle the surroundings anymore.

 

“Touching… Touching… Too much… Too much… Too much touching, too much noise… Too much” He began to rock back and forth, in an attempt of calm himself while also hoping to get the hands touching him to go away.

 

It was too much.

 

“Stop touching him” Kimberly exclaimed suddenly, jumping back and nearly knocking Trini down on the process, realization of what was happening hitting into her like train.

 

It wasn’t the first episode that the kids witnessed. Billy didn’t have episodes often – his level of autism not being too grave after all – but it had happened before.

 

It was only their lucky that, so far, it had never happened at school or whenever none of the parents were there to take control of the situation.

 

“What do we do?” Jason asked, pure panic written on his face and eyes still fixed on Billy, who had his hands covering his ears as he rocked back and forth, murmuring under his breath.

 

Kids started to gather around.

 

Trini began to feel her anxiety to arise, her face growing pale and clumsy, a lump tightening her throat and knuckles growing pale from her grip on Kim’s shirt.

 

Her friend was in distress – he looked like he couldn’t breathe – and she knew how that felt. He was scared – frightened and shaking – and she knew how that felt. Her mind began to conjure images that weren’t there, voices not really to be heard, harsh words whispered on nothing as she stood there frozen, unable to do anything to help.

 

_(Useless. Pendeja. Brat. Why can’t you do anything right? Idiota. Just shut up! Dumb. Freak. Cállate!)_

“Alright guys, there’s nothing to see here. Let’s give Billy a little space, shall we?” Diana’s calm voice broke through all the chaos in the playground.

 

She made a quick job of – after Zack let go from her hand and with the help from another teacher – to get the other kids to get away from the scene until it was only her and the five children on the corner of the playground.

 

“Hey Billy, sweetheart? Can you hear me?” She was kneeling in front of the little boy now, hands hovering next to him, where he could see but making no move to actually touch him.

 

“Too much… Too much…”

 

“I know, sweetie, but can you please try and pay attention on me please? Just for a little while?” Her voice was calm and steady, eyes fixed solemnly on the panicking little boy while still feeling four other panicked pair of eyes on her.

 

“Too much…”

 

“You like numbers, don’t you Billy? I know for a fact that you are really amazing with them! Do you like numbers, Billy?”

 

Billy’s eyes squeezed tightly for a long moment of silence as he struggled to focus on the gentle voice before him, to ground himself on something – just like his therapist taught him to do.

 

“Yes… Numbers, yes, I like numbers, numbers, yes”

 

“Good. Guess what? I like numbers too! Why don’t we… Me and you… Count for a little while huh? What about that?”

 

“Count… Count is good. I like counting, counting’s good”

 

“It is” Diana nodded to herself, a gentle smile on her face when the little boy – looking tired and flushed – opened his eyes at her with a deep frown and still rocking back and forth “Why don’t you start Billy?”

 

“… One… One, two… One, two, three…” Billy’s voice shook and Diana nodded happily at him, holding her hand a little closer to him while still not touching him.

 

“That’s good Billy, keep going”

 

“… One, two, three, four… One, two, three, four, five… One, two, three…” The little boy reached out, looking like he didn’t even know what he was doing and wrapped his hand tightly around her fingers, the mist behind his eyes gradually disappearing “… Four, five, six… One, two, three, four, five, six, seven… One, two, three, four…”

 

\---

 

After calming down the little boy, Diana had to call his mother and Candace showed up no longer than ten minutes later, looking worried like only a mother could.

 

She took him home early, leaving four worried little kids behind.

 

Diana sighed, sitting at the group’s table during activity time to assist the littlest one but soon realized her efforts were useless.

 

Trini had been out of it since she first arrived at school; after the recess incident however, she simply wasn’t up for anything anymore. The same seemed to go for the other three, who were too busy staring blankly at their worksheets to even try to answer any of the questions in it. At least it seemed like Zack tried briefly at some point before deciding that doodling around was a better use of his time.

 

“Alright” The teacher finally sighed, releasing her pen into the table and grabbing the attention of the four kids before her. “Who wants to talk first?”

 

“Talk?” Kim frowned, dropping her head to the side a little in confusion “Talk ‘bout what?”

 

“About what happened to Billy”

 

“It wasn’t our fault!” Zack hurried to exclaim, a little louder than he should and landing himself a few stares. Diana smiled reassuring at him.

 

“I know it wasn’t your fault, Zack. But sometimes, even when something happens and it isn’t our fault at all, it’s good to talk about it… About how we feel about it. It helps us to deal with it”

 

“What do you mean, to deal with it?” Jason asked. Diana linked her fingers on top of the little table and looked between the four little confused faces.

 

“Well… What happened to Billy, it was quite scary, wasn’t it?”

 

“Yes. It always is” Kim agreed, nodding her head quickly “But today was more, cuz his Mommy and his Daddy weren’t here to help him like always”

 

“He was breathing funny” Jason averted his gaze down to his lap, fidgeting with his hands on top of it “… And we made it worse because we kept touching him…”

 

“… So, it was a little bit our fault, right, Mrs. Prince?” Kim asked with a deep frown, nibbling her bottom lip worriedly. Diana immediately reached out and grabbed her little hand gently.

 

“No, honey. You guys were worried and didn’t know what to do. It’s okay, nothing of what happened was your fault”

 

“But we shouldn’t have kept touching him” Jason deadpanned “We know he doesn’t like it and we kept doing it”

 

“Well… Yes. But you know what? It served for we to learn didn’t it?”

 

“Learn what?” Zack wondered and Diana looked at him, smiling gently.

 

“What to do and not to do when something like that happens again. Now you guys know not to touch him unless he touches you first when something like that happens, right?”

 

“Right” Kim nodded seriously, her frown slowly melting away from her face. Besides her, Trini kept her eyes down and nibbling on her bottom lip.

 

“And count with him?” Jason asked confusedly “It helps him, right Mrs. Prince? Count with him, it helps him… Why?”

 

“Because it helps him to focus on something. It helps him to concentrate in only one thing” She tried slowly and Jason nodded, still looking slightly confused none less.

 

“So… When he gets like that again…” Zack started, a deep frown in his face as he tried to organize his thoughts “… We have to not touch him… And help him to count?”

 

“Well, you can do that to help him, sure. But is also very important that you find an adult, as soon as possible so they can handle the situation” She explained gently “It’s very important that whenever something like that happens, not only with Billy, or when someone is hurt in any way, that you call an adult so they can help you”

 

Zack hummed in understanding and nodded along with Jason’s very slow cautious nod. Kim just turned her gaze to Trini who met her eyes for a moment before looking down to the table in front of her.

 

Diana didn’t miss this little interaction. She frowned.

 

Trini held her left hand a little closer to her tummy and all four kids suddenly looked guilty.

 

She looked between all of them.

 

“Guys? Is there something else you want to tell me?”

 

They were all quiet for a second. Then Jason opened his mouth.

 

“Mrs. Prince? Can you help me please?”

 

And it was only her luck that Amanda Clark called out in that specific moment.

 

She almost sighed when Jason closed his mouth again, cringing slightly when someone kicked him under the table. The teacher couldn’t see, but Kim grabbed Trini’s good had under the table and gave it a small reassuring squeeze.

 

“No, Mrs. Prince. We’re just worried about Billy” The little girl smiled innocently and now Diana really did sigh.

 

“Try to do your work, guys. If you can’t do it, is okay for today. But at least try, alright? Call me if you need anything” She looked between all the four pair of eyes for a moment longer, watching them all nod before getting up from the little chair.

 

\---

 

“Mrs. Prince?”

 

The teacher looked up startled at the little voice coming from the doorway.

 

The dismiss bell had rang a few minutes ago, most of the kids had already left the school grounds so she wasn’t exactly expecting a little one showing up at her classroom door.

 

Most of all, she wasn’t expecting the little one her eyes found when they lifted from the sheets she was busying herself grading.

 

“Trini?”

 

The little girl didn’t look up. Her eyes remained locked with her little worn out sneakers, looking like she was trying not to jingle her left hand too much and nibbling on her bottom lip like she did very often.

 

The teacher pushed her chair away from her desk and got up. The noise seemed to startle the little girl, who looked up with big brown eyes that were filling with tears at an alarming rate. Diana frowned, took a couple of steps forwards and crouched down, reaching her arms out in invitation.

 

She was only mildly surprised when the little 6 year old dashed to her, her right hand gripping onto the collar of her shirt tightly as her face hid onto her neck. When she wrapper her arms around her in response, Trini flinched and her body started shaking with silent sobs.

 

Diana frowned.

 

“Sweetheart, what’s the matter?” She whispered softly, frown deepening when Trini flinched away with a small gasp from her hand when it started rubbing small circles on her back. She sobbed harder and clung to her more, shaking her head against her neck. “Trini? Please talk to me… What got you this upset?”

 

Trini’s cries were hard enough to rock her whole body but she barely made a sound. Her sobs were silent, painfully so, and her gasps for air started to get more desperate as time went by.

 

“… _Not ‘pposed… Not ‘pposed to te-tell”_

“What?” Diana asked gently, resting her hands on the girl’s hips and softly pulling her away from her body, just enough so she could see her face. Trini hiccupped, her eyes squirting painfully as more tears fell and her little arms reached out, trying to get back on the safety of her teacher’s embrace but Diana remained firm, holding her by her hips and trying to make eye contact with her “Trini, honey, what are you not supposed to tell? What’s going on?”

 

The first loud sob left the little girl’s lips and she opened her mouth. She froze.

 

_(“If you ever tell anyone, you’ll wish we left you on the closet forever”_

_“You think that’s bad? Try telling anyone and you’ll know what bad really means”_

_“You think your friends and their_ amazing _parents care about you? They don’t. And they’ll do so much worse than we do if you tell; they’ll see just what a stupid little whore you are. Penteja”)_

She shook her head, feeling like the walls were about to close around her again. She felt like running, not knowing why she ever thought of coming here in first place.

 

But her friends had already left for their houses and they had those disappointed eyes because she made them hide something from their sweet teacher and the guilt got to her.

 

She didn’t know why she lunched herself forwards again instead of trying to free herself from the hands on her. She didn’t know why she clung to her teacher’s shirt again instead of running. And she definitely didn’t know why her breathing began to calm down at the long fingers running through her hair, the soft whispers on her ear.

 

She closed her eyes and leaned more into her teacher’s chest, ignoring the burn on her back from where her other arm cradled her gently. Ignoring the pain on her left wrist as she shifted it to lay on her shoulder. She could barely feel the pain that shoot through her scalp anytime anything touched the back of her head.

 

“Trini, sweetheart… Please… Tell me what’s going on?”

 

**_“Trinity”_ **

Teacher and student froze. Trini’s body tensing up and Diana’s arms tightening around her protectively.

 

Both sets of brown eyes lifted to the woman standing in the doorway, face free from any emotion as she watched on the interaction of the two.

 

Trini went pale.

 

Diana felt anger building up inside of her.

 

June Gomez crossed her arms above her chest and raised a brow, looking genuinely concerned. Diana somehow knew it was all for the wrong reasons.

 

“What’s going on, sweetie?”

 

Trini knew she was in more trouble than she has ever been in her entire short life.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So? Was it too bad? You think I've ruinned the whole story? Or should I keep going? Lemme know what you think, please! And thank you guys for all your support so far! And don't forget to check out my new story ;)

**Author's Note:**

> So... What do you think? Should I give this a try?
> 
> Give me your thoughts, any idea is welcome and hope you enjoyed it ;)


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